CMA Discovers Video Game Budgets Are Ballooning To As Much As $ 1 Billion

gameranx.com:

The CMA has discovered that modern day video game budgets are ballooning to as much as $ 1 billion, including both game development at marketing.

IGN reported on the CMA’s findings, citing a report by market intelligence group IDG. We’ll share the actual phrase the CMA used so you can interpret them as you see fit.

On page 309 of the document, they state this:

“A report by IDG submitted by a third party dated August 2021 notes that development budgets are reaching unprecedented ranges. The report observes that while 5 years ago most AAA console/PC releases had development budgets between $50-150 million, on average, games that are greenlit today, with a potential release in 2024-2025, are being approved for development budgets of $200 million or higher.

Also, the report says that some AAA franchises like CoD have development budgets already exceeding $300 million, and the next GTA and other future tent-poles are also expected to hit $250 million or higher.

Activision is also quoted in this report saying with reference to CoD: ‘We have to make so much content for Call of Duty, that we can’t even lean on one lead studio anymore. Now we need almost 1.5 lead studios for each annual CoD. That kind of bandwidth pressure is forcing us to use outsourcers more and more. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

Video games that released in 2016 include:

In contrast, here are a few releases from 2021:

Today, we are at a point where Sony can report high sales numbers for their first party games, and yet still feel compelled to bring those same games over to PC. All of that is no longer enough for game companies to recoup their investments in making these bigger games.

Now, the IGN’s $ 1 billion figure also came from the CMA’s