Grand Theft Auto V Cost Nearly $267 Million

[Andy Chalk]

Grand Theft Auto V Cost Nearly $267 Million

Grand Theft Auto V is reportedly the most expensive videogame ever made.

Game development budgets are dodgy things and you have to take reports like this one with a grain of salt, but if the numbers reported by the Scotsman are even close to accurate, the total cost to make and market Grand Theft Auto V is absolutely astounding. While it doesn't specify a source, the site claims that Rockstar's "development and marketing budget" on the game was £170 million - $267 million - which Kotaku [http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/09/grand-theft-auto-v-is-the-most-expensive-video-game-ever-made/] says makes it the most expensive videogame ever created, far surpassing the $200 million blown (literally) on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The good news, at least from Take Two's perspective, is that the site also claims "industry experts" are predicting that the new GTA could move 25 million copies in its first year of release, adding up to sales of £1 billion - more than $1.5 billion. That figure presumably comes from EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, who told NowGamer [http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1665129/gta_5_will_sell_25_million_copies_in_12_months.html] in November 2012 that he expects the game will "sell upwards of 25 million copies in its first 12 months."

That a healthy return on a hefty investment and it's a foregone conclusion that Grand Theft Auto V is going to be a huge hit, but $267 million for a single videogame is still a ridiculous pile of money. Sooner or later even the deepest-pocketed publishers are going to hit the ceiling on these things. Right?

Source: The Scotsman [http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/technology/new-gta-v-release-tipped-to-rake-in-1bn-in-sales-1-3081943]


Permalink

 

[Josh123914]

GTA 4 had a big budget too so this is no suprise.

My question is if it can break the highest grossing game line that CoD's been taking for the past 3 consecutive years.

 

[oldtaku]

A big chunk of this is going to be building the huge multiplayer from almost scratch. Hopefully for the next one they wouldn't have to start /all/ over on the tech.

 

[vxicepickxv]

The only media to ever cost more is Pirates 3, at 300 million.

 

[gigastar]

So to make that back Rockstar and Take-Two are looking for upwards of (not taking into account the marketing, printing, shipping, cuts taken by retail, and cuts taken by Sony/MS) of at least 3.4m sales assuming every copy goes at the regional equivalent of $60.

Dont think its gonna end well.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I wonder how much of that budget is for development and how much is marketing. With all the ads, commercials and what-not being thrown at my face everywhere, I'm guessing a lot.

Also, 25 million copies in a year. Good to see the industry has learned to lower its expectations. Though to be honest, looking at the sales of its predecessors, GTAV might actually get there. One year might be pushing it a bit.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Damn, that's a lot of money. I'd love to see how that is broken down to the various parts of development/marketing etc. I'm expecting a large chunk was to throw adverts at people, but even so that's a huge budget. Maybe they were using strippers as mouse pads?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Why? Just why? What could possibly be in the game to justify that kind of budget?
Off Topic: Is the word "literally" that hard to use correctly?

Spoiler

Edit: I derailed the thread enough as is. Please don't quote this.

 

[FogHornG36]

Wouldn't be surprised if they made back more then that on the first day, Games like this prove that their is still room for block buster, triple A games in the age of indie games making it big.

 

[qwertybirdy]

Off Topic: Is the word "literally" that hard to use correctly?

Spoiler

Your winner

Spoiler

 

[Kinitawowi]

Off Topic: Is the word "literally" that hard to use correctly?

Spoiler

Spoiler: I will see your Oatmeal and raise you XKCD

Also, $267 million is sheer nonsense. It's going to make it all back with plenty to spare, but still, nonsense.

 

[Ukomba]

Why? Just why? What could possibly be in the game to justify that kind of budget?
Off Topic: Is the word "literally" that hard to use correctly?

Spoiler

He literally did use it correctly.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/according_to_the_dictionary_literally_now_also_means_figuratively_newscred/

get with the times.

 

[Fappy]

I mean, if a company's got faith in their brand then more power to them... but this just seems excessive. What could have possibly warranted such an enormous budget? Rockstar's got a pretty damn good track record as a competent developer, but damn.

Hopefully the game does well.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Why? Just why? What could possibly be in the game to justify that kind of budget?
Off Topic: Is the word "literally" that hard to use correctly?

Spoiler

He literally did use it correctly.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/according_to_the_dictionary_literally_now_also_means_figuratively_newscred/

get with the times.

So the word now has two different meanings? People misused it so much that we broke a word? Wow.

 

[Ukomba]

Why? Just why? What could possibly be in the game to justify that kind of budget?
Off Topic: Is the word "literally" that hard to use correctly?

Spoiler

He literally did use it correctly.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/according_to_the_dictionary_literally_now_also_means_figuratively_newscred/

get with the times.

So the word now has two different meanings? People misused it so much that we broke a word? Wow.

Yup, but also since TOR used ~$200 million dollars to make their game. Saying they literally used $200 million is using the word correctly based on it's original definition, he wasn't being figurative.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

The good news, at least from Take Two's perspective, is that the site also claims "industry experts" are predicting that the new GTA could move [HEADING=1]25 million copies[/HEADING] in its first year of release...

That's a good one. Good-golly-gracious, me.

Now, I know the franchise is really gosh-darn popular, but c'mon, that's crazy. They're shooting for CoD numbers there.

I know they'll make a profit, simply because the series has a huge reputation in the gaming community and are some of the highest quality games in existence, but still... 25 million copies in the FIRST YEAR? Seriously? Don't be ricilus.

 

[Tiamat666]

It would be fun to create a list of "game budget vs game size" (bits or bytes needed to install the game on a computer). This "cost per bit" would perhaps be an interesting indicator of the true value of a game. Following the same logic of how you would look at the per-capita income rather than the GDP of a country to judge its prosperity.

And just like the GDP, the results might be misleading, because while you have some countries with high per-capita income (such as the U.S.) they might actually have a lower quality of life than lower-rated countries, due to issues that don't factor into the simple GDP calculation, such as the distribution of wealth, crime, education, pollution, freedoms, etc.

For example, you could hire 1000 incompetent developers and create a 50k PacMan for 100 million dollars. This would be one hell of a valuable PacMan game. From this point of view, the budget/size is more akin to a competence meter. On the other side of the spectrum, you could spend a hundred K creating a game with an intricate, pre-generated, procedural, voxel game world, requiring hundreds of gigabytes of data, making it practically worthless by this calculation.

On second thought, the idea sucks. Forget it.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Why? Just why? What could possibly be in the game to justify that kind of budget?
Off Topic: Is the word "literally" that hard to use correctly?

Spoiler

He literally did use it correctly.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/according_to_the_dictionary_literally_now_also_means_figuratively_newscred/

get with the times.

So the word now has two different meanings? People misused it so much that we broke a word? Wow.

Yup, but also since TOR used ~$200 million dollars to make their game. Saying they literally used $200 million is using the word correctly based on it's original definition, he wasn't being figurative.

He used "blown". I got a funny image of Bioware employees with a leaf blower. It is just a pet peeve of mine. I can be a real snarky asshole sometimes. Also, I kind of accidentally hijacked this thread. Sorry, Andy.

So the word now has two different meanings? People misused it so much that we broke a word? Wow.

Hate to blow your mind but this is what happens all the time. Words get new meanings depending on their usage of the general population. Words get new meanings and are not set in stone.

The two definitions are opposites, though. Just kind of funny.