On Wednesday, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked a merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, citing its impact on cloud gaming. In addition to fundamentally changing the future of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, the documents released with the decision also revealed considerable details about the growing financial demands behind AAA games.
of Extensive reporting on decisionsthe CMA has revealed that some major publishers report it costs over $1 billion to create a AAA game.
Currently green-lit AAA games that could be released in 2024 or 2025 typically receive development budgets of $200 million or more, according to reports. Call of Duty already has over $300 million in development costs alone, and the next Grand Theft Auto title probably needs a development budget of $250 million or more. Considering marketing costs, the figure could exceed $1 billion, with one large studio reporting that developing a major franchise he spent $660 million and marketing costs he spent close to $550 million. It is reported that it will
These costs represent a significant increase from five years ago, when budgets for most AAA games were between $50 million and $150 million.
Citing a report from market intelligence group IDG, the CMA’s ruling also revealed details about increased development demand for new Call of Duty titles.
“We have to create so much content for Call of Duty that we can no longer even rely on one lead studio,” Activision is quoted as saying in a report. “Right now we need almost 1.5 lead studios per his CoD each year. That kind of bandwidth pressure has forced us to use outsourcers more and more. not.”
