The Last of Us Part II, Horizon Forbidden West Cost Over $200 Million Each to Make, Court Documents Reveal

gadgets.ndtv.com:

The Last of Us Part II and Horizon Forbidden West each cost over $200 million (about Rs. 1,640 crore) to develop. A set of court documents from Sony, which feature inadequate and washed-out redaction, revealed the headcount and budget for both games, as the PlayStation parent tries to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The documentation showed that the highly polarising The Last of Us Part II had roughly 200 full-time employees working on it and was budgeted at $220 million (about Rs. 1,805 crore). Development on it took longer than 70 months, starting in 2014 and ending in 2020 i.e., the launch year. Meanwhile, another first-party PlayStation release, Horizon Forbidden West, cost $212 million (about Rs. 1,739 crore) to make, with a developer headcount of over 300. Not to mention, it received a DLC called Burning Shores, earlier this year, which would have cost more.

Sony submitted these documents at the ongoing trial involving Microsoft and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), making a case for the importance of AAA gaming, as they seek Call of Duty's presence on its consoles — even going into next-gen in 2028. PlayStation argues that if it does not have access to high-quality games, and if they're only available on Xbox, it would cause its player base/ consumers to jump ship over to Team Green. Video game development is largely shrouded in secrecy, in order to avoid leaks before launch and capitalise on hype, but these documents offer a rare insight into AAA development. The time and money investment can often be disheartening if the game struggles to perform as expected. Expectations are very high and it's only going to get more complex as we move away from standard technical features like ray