The gaming industry is shrouded in mystery, and it is very rare that we get a glimpse behind the curtain. This is one of the reasons that so many people have taken such an interest in the legal proceedings of the Activision Blizzard acquisition. A variety of interesting tidbits have been revealed thanks to the pending deal for Microsoft, which has offered insight into how the industry works behind closed doors. However, the scale and cost of developing a AAA game have remained quite a mystery despite all we have learned over the past few years. However, thanks to a job listing we have an idea of how much Forspoken by Luminous Productions cost to develop.
Forspoken Was A $100 Million Project
In a job listing discovered by Twitter user Timur222, it was revealed just how much it cost for Luminous Productions and Square Enix to develop the action-adventure game. Allison Rymer, who was the lead writer for Forspoken revealed in her job description on LinkedIn that it cost over $100 million to develop the game that launched earlier this year.
“Allison was approached to be the lead writer on a AAA video game for one of the biggest video game companies in the world, Square Enix/Luminous. She spearheaded the story behind Forspoken, which costs over a hundred million dollars to make.”
Now $100 million seems like a lot of money, but after the announcement from Embracer Group that the Saints Row reboot cost them over $110 million. We are beginning to see a pattern in the rising costs of AAA games. One failed release can cripple a studio financially, and even may cause the closure of that studio. As the industry continues to grow and expand that does not mean the risk of failure is lower. If nothing else, with the sheer volume of titles being released now. It has become even harder for games to stand out without spending a good chunk of change on marketing plans. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for AAA gaming as costs continue to rise, much like everything else in our lives.
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