with the rise of the video game industry developers and Publishers are way more
willing to pour millions and millions of dollars into their projects and with the expectation that
the money will be returned shortly after launch it's a gamble sometimes welcome to the channel
everybody chaos here have you ever wondered what the actual most expensive video games of all time
are and if you have today is your day because that's what we're going to be looking at the
top 10 most expensive video games of all time for this list we will be ranking the total development
and marketing cost with adjusted inflation rates that's right we're going deep at least by 2021
standards now keep in mind not all development costs are disclose so this list is only going
to include data that we've gotten straight from the horse's mouth so don't comment telling us
we forgot something because no we didn't we're gonna go off what we can see we're not going to
make stuff up so let me know what you think the most expensive game is drop a like and we start
off at number 10 with Battlefield 4. now it's unknown just how much Battlefield 2042 ended up
costing EA we do know for certain how much BF 4 costume and it was it was a lot released in 2014
this was the first next-gen Battlefield game in EA reportedly cut development short so they could
get it on the market to compete with Call of Duty ghost now if you know your gaming history which
I know most of you do you probably also know they really could have used a little extra time in the
oven because the game launched uh busted dice had to spend weeks fixing everything now granted it's
widely seen as one of the best games in the series today it did a complete 180 still has a healthy
community on PC especially after the failure of BF 2042 so how much did EA end up dropping on
the project well according to official reports EA dropped an even 100 million on the project
and went adjusted for inflation that puts it at about 116 million dollars to put that into
perspective the budget for the first Deadpool movie was 58 million keep that in mind as we
go forward on this list at number nine shadow of the Tomb Raider left field pick I know it was the
last entry in the series to come out concluded the Square Enix reboot Trilogy while it was criticized
for being less adventurous and more shooty than previous Tomb Raider games it was praised for its
presentation in its breathtaking visuals Shadow the tomb Raiders legitimately one of the best
looking games ever made in Square Enix made sure the developers all had the money they needed to
make it happen while the marketing budget for the game was around 35 million the development
cost was reportedly between 75 and 100 million so adjust that for inflation shadow of the Tomb
Raider ended up costing Square Enix around 146 million dollars the game May ended up selling
close to 9 million units so I'm pretty sure this one was a good investment at number eight these
numbers are gonna get dumb as we go GTA 4. I bet you're expecting to see GTA 5 on this list
well may actually surprise you that GTA 4 was the more expensive project at least according to the
official statements made by the companies involved released in 2008 it was the first HD entry in the
series featured a massive World lots of detail two massive expansion packs expanded upon the story in
the universe everything now it's believed that GTA 5 was actually the more expensive project we only
have true official numbers on GTA 4 and those numbers are pretty staggering when adjusted for
inflation it's believed that Rockstar dropped a minimum of 126 million on the project now
this obviously paid off in Spades for them since it's one of the best-selling games of the seventh
console generation but that's an insane amount of money to drop on a video game and we're still only
at number eight at number seven Final Fantasy VII now most people have played uh the Final Fantasy 7
remake from a few years ago but not nearly as many modern Gamers have played the original at least is
a PS1 exclusive back at 97 it was not only the biggest game of the year but it was also one of
the most expensive games ever made at that time and I get it the game's huge especially by late
90s standards according to the howlongtobeat.com the original Final Fantasy VII will run you around
50 hours to finish and back in the PS1 days that meant it had to have multiple discs which also
drove up the cost of production the 97 budget for it was estimated to be between 80 and 145
million now let's adjust that for inflation that puts it around 135 to 245 million dollars now I'm
sure Square was perfectly fine with this since it ended up being one of the most famous video
games of all time at number six Dead Space 2. here's a game I was not expecting to see on a
list like this but here it is the original Dead Space was developed by visceral games probably
the most terrifying game of 2008. it was heavily inspired by re4 the atmosphere took influence from
movies like Event Horizon Solaris Dead Space one it was a big success by horror game standards and
it was enough for EA to take notice they wanted to capitalize on the surprise hit so here comes
Dead Space 2 bigger and better they gave visceral pretty much anything they needed to make the new
game an all-around Improvement they made sure the marketing was top-notch they reportedly spent 60
million on both the development marketing when adjusted for inflation that puts it at a price
tag of about 145 million now it's been a long time since a new horror franchise managed to hit the
same highs as dead space back in the late 2000s maybe the Callisto protocol can carry the torch
now we reach the top five destiny Bungie's first project after leaving Halo behind in the dust it
was hyped after developing the Fantastic Halo Trilogy in its prequel Halo Reach Gamers around
the world were eager to see what they would do when it was announced that the company had signed
with Activision to do another large-scale sci-fi shooter that was not going to be an exclusive to
one platform here comes the hype train Activision spare no expense with Destiny's launch they poured
millions of dollars into the project and they want to make sure absolutely everybody in the world
knew it was coming when you adjust for inflation it was estimated that Activision dropped 160
million on Destiny even though the game itself didn't get the best reviews it made that budget
back in its first week of being on the market so to them it was a green check mark at number four
Halo 2. now the original Halo helped put Xbox on the map I still remember to this day pulling out
my original Xbox the day I got it I pre-ordered it six months early and playing Halo all night I mean
Microsoft is forever in Bungie's debt for making it happen the development of the original Halo was
interesting after it was a huge success Microsoft knew they had to keep that train rolling with a
sequel Halo 2 was greenlit very quickly after the first game's launch and Microsoft wanted to get it
in the Public's hands as quickly as possible so they used any way they could to popularize their
new Xbox Live service which was struggling to get off the ground without a killer app so Microsoft
was pumping money into Halo 2's development marketing it and guess what it paid off in
the end it ended up being one of the most popular games of the year and it was widely responsible
for popularizing online multiplayer on the consoles according to records Microsoft dropped
40 million on the game's development in 80 million on marketing and promos adjust that for inflation
Halo 2 ended up costing around 230 million dollars and it was worth every single penny
at number three Modern Warfare 2 2009 most of the games on this list had a pretty consistent
split between development and marketing costs the companies involved usually spend about double to
Triple the marketing costs on the development of the game but Modern Warfare 2 we went the other
way developed by IW published by the bottomless pockets of Activision Modern Warfare 2 is a smash
hit before it even came out and that was thanks to Activision making a pretty huge gamble here
the game itself was reportedly developed for 40 to 50 million but the marketing budget was an absurd
200 million Modern Warfare 2 stuff was absolutely everywhere in 2009 Billboards TV spots online ads
bus station posters Mountain Dew Titans you name it and it was there and I think it's safe to say
that everybody was doing it Activision's gamble obviously paid off because Modern Warfare 2 became
one of the best selling games of all time almost immediately upon release but when it was all
said and done it looks like the publisher sunk approximately 316 million into the project now
let's adjust that for inflation and given the fact that Modern Warfare 2 grossed over 300 million on
launch day I think it's safe to say Activision made the right call with this marketing budget
at number two cyberpunk 2077. now I bought into the hype just like all of you developed by CD
projekt Red it was a first person open world RPG set in a dystopian future where your mercenary
character tried to learn more about the world they inhabit the factions at play and had Keanu
Reeves initially launched in 2020 perfect way to cap off that dumpster fire of a year right
due to it being blatantly broken and borderline unplayable the game had to be pulled from sale
on the Xbox and Playstation platforms until it was patched up while the steam version had to sit with
that overwhelmingly negative label attached to it to that big red duns cap cyberpunk eventually
redeemed itself after a year or so worth of updates and it's actually a really good game
now but the amount of money CD project red sunk into it was insane now granted it's a huge open
world RPG so naturally it's going to cost a lot but the budget breakdown here we go reportedly had
a development budget of 174 million in a marketing budget of over 140 million now when adjusted with
inflation it's believed that CD projekt Red sunk over 331 million into this game that's a third
of a billion people and you know what else they actually made that money back before they fixed
it yeah that stings doesn't it and at number one today Star Citizen if you've been following this
project it should not Shock you it's here if you haven't been following the project you're probably
a little confused as to why a game that isn't even out can be so expensive here's the short version
Star Citizen is an upcoming space MMO for the PC that began pre-production in 2010 you heard
me right 12 years ago has been delayed countless times while gobbling up more and more money from
crowdfunding campaigns and third-party investors the project has gotten so big that there are now
a handful of legal issues regarding how much money has been contributed with absolutely
nothing to show for it but the developers Cloud Imperium games insist it's coming out when it
finally does launch it's going to be the single biggest multiplayer game of all time at least in
terms of game size the game was initially Crown funded for 2 million since then developers have
reportedly received another 400 million for the project which makes it the single most expensive
video game of all time despite not being out currently no set release date or estimated
release window for Star Citizen and people are starting to get annoyed at the lack of return on
their investment so is this game coming how much money is it going to absorb before getting in our
hands at this point I think it's going to cross 600 million before we even get an open Beta will
be worth the wait I don't I don't think so I have no doubt that it'll be a good game but unless it
literally grabs our socks and throws them out the window it's not going to live up to these
insane expectations developers have set I mean it's been in development for over a decade in
over 400 million has been sunk in do you really think the final project is going to reflect that
call me cynical here I don't think so I mean it will be good for sure I just don't know if it's
going to be 400 to 600 million in 10 plus years worth of work good we'll see there you go those
are the most expensive games of all time hope you guys have a great day and I'll see you soon
thank you