When Activision, a big games publisher, released “Destiny” on September 9th, it was not just covered in the gaming press. Many newspapers commented on the game’s eye-watering budget, reported to be around $500m. How could a video game cost half a billion dollars to make? The truth is, it didn’t—Activision hopes that “Destiny” will become the first game in a long-running franchise, and $500m is the amount the firm has set aside to make that happen. But game budgets are, nonetheless, swelling. Developers and publishers are coy about releasing specific numbers, but budgets of tens of millions of dollars are not uncommon. The biggest, most polished games can cost hundreds of millions. “Star Wars: The Old Republic”, an online game released in 2011, is reputed to have cost between $150m and $200m. “Grand Theft Auto V”, which came out two years later, reputedly cost $265m. These are numbers on the same scale as blockbuster Hollywood films. Why have games become so expensive to make?
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