Black Ops Cold War Development Costs Reach $700 Million, Activision Reveals

screenrant.com:

A recent court filing has revealed the development costs of three titles between 2015 and 2020. The creative lead and franchise director for Activision's FPS franchise phenomenon, Patrick Kelly, estimated that these three releases cost the company between $450-700 million each, with 2020's having a budget of more than $700 million during its lifecycle.

These development figures, which were discovered by Game File, are being described as among the highest officially confirmed by a gaming company. The breakdown came from a lawsuit concerning the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which partly held Activision responsible due to the shooter's frequent playing of the game. While Activision has previously stated to CBS News that «m» Kelly's declaration for the lawsuit utilizes the budgets as context for global success.

Patrick Kelly, who was the official spokesperson on behalf of Activision Blizzard for the lawsuit, declared the budgets and sales of the titles in December 2024, emphasizing the hundreds of employees who worked on the military shooters during its development. The budgets take into account the lifecycle of the games, such as DLC, map packs, and other updates, but further costs such as marketing are currently unclear. The earliest title discussed was 2015's estimated to have cost Activision more than $450 million, and ultimately sold around 43 million copies after its three-year development period.

These development figures are among the only officially confirmed and publically available numbers in gaming, as many are estimated by experts or leaked.

In addition to the Treyarch-led Mwas developed «over several years,» ultimately setting back over $640 million to pay for Infinity Ward's reboot. The larger budget didn't bring in additional sales though, as 41 million games were sold. However, the largest cost revealed by Activision was 2020's, with Treyarch and Raven Software's development costing the publisher a whopping $700 million and selling 30 million