Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War reportedly cost $700 million to develop

According to the last report by journalist Stephen Totilo on the Game File site, the development of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold Warreleased in 2020, would have cost no less than 700 million dollarswhich would make it one of the most expensive games in history. The journalist also reveals the production prices of the latest Call of Duty games which are reaching new heights!

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War: spend without counting

It is through of a legal filereviewed by journalist Stephen Totilo for the site Game File as we learn in detail the cost of production of the latest installments of the Call of Duty saga. And the amounts are gargantuan. Indeed, the file would highlight figures that are dizzying, disclosed by Patrick Kelly, the current creative manager of the franchise Call of Duty :

• Call of Duty Black Ops IIIIreleased in 2015, would have cost more than 450 million dollars, with 43 million sales.
• Call of Duty Modern Warfarein 2019, would have cost more than $640 million, with 41 million copies sold.
• Call of Duty Black Ops Cold Warin 2020, would have cost no less than 700 million dollars, for 30 million games sold.

Unfortunately, these figures do not allow us to know more. Do these amounts concern only game development ? Or is it the total envelope including game development, marketing and online service support? There is a good chance that the second option is the right onebecause it seems totally implausible that the Call of Duty games cost so much only on the production side.

According to an article from Rockstar Mag’ in 2019the analysis firm VenturesBeat had estimated that the development of Red Dead Redemption II would have cost the sum of 944 million dollarswhich would make it today the most expensive video game, but also the most expensive cultural entertainment product in history. According to VenturesBeat’s analysis, the game would have required $644.2 million in production over its eight years of development between 2010 and 2018 and no less than $300 million in marketing.

In September 2022, following leaks concerning GTA 6a document indicated that Take Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, would have filed an envelope of 2 billion dollars for the development (production and marketing) of the next opus of the series Grand Theft Auto. A sum which could be profitable from the first year of marketing of the game according to the firm Capital Financial, since GTA 6 could generate more than $3.2 billion in its first year.