Record-Breaking Call of Duty Budgets: A Look at the Rising Costs of AAA Game Development
Recent disclosures reveal staggering development budgets for several Call of Duty titles, reaching unprecedented heights within the video game industry. Budgets for three specific games—Black Ops 3, Modern Warfare (2019), and Black Ops Cold War—have been revealed, ranging from $450 million to a jaw-dropping $700 million. This surpasses previous records held by other major titles.
The sheer scale of these figures underscores the increasingly expensive nature of AAA game development. While indie games often thrive on smaller, community-funded budgets, the creation of blockbuster titles demands substantial financial investment and years of dedicated effort. While games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Last of Us Part 2 are known for their high development costs, even these pale in comparison to the newly revealed Call of Duty figures.
Activision's filings, as reported by Game File, detail the financial commitment behind these releases. Black Ops Cold War, with its budget exceeding $700 million, represents the most expensive video game ever made, surpassing even the considerable $644 million spent on Star Citizen. This is particularly noteworthy considering Black Ops Cold War's funding came solely from Activision, unlike Star Citizen's eleven-year crowdfunding campaign.
Modern Warfare (2019) follows closely behind, with a development cost exceeding $640 million, and Black Ops 3, at $450 million, still significantly outpaces the $220 million budget of The Last of Us Part 2. These numbers highlight the exponential growth in AAA game development costs.
The escalating trend is further illustrated by comparing these figures to older titles. The groundbreaking Final Fantasy VII, released in 1997, had a then-massive budget of $40 million. Today, that amount seems minuscule in the context of current AAA game production.
The revealed Call of Duty budgets serve as a clear indication of the ever-increasing financial demands within the video game industry, leaving one to speculate on the even larger budgets that future installments, such as Black Ops 6, may require.
