The biggest development budgets ever disclosed by a game company, buried in a court filing (but found by Game File), along with updated sales figures.

Absolutely insane.

In a court filing reviewed by Game File that has not been previously reported, Patrick Kelly, Activision’s current head of creative on the Call of Duty franchise, said that three Call of Duty games, released between 2015 and 2020, cost $450-700 million to make.

  • Black Ops III (2015): “Treyarch developed the game over three years with a creative team of hundreds of people, and invested over $450 million in development costs over the game’s lifecycle.” (Kelly also discloses that it has sold 43 million copies.)
  • Modern Warfare (2019): “Infinity Ward developed the game over several years and has spent over $640 million in development costs throughout the game’s lifecycle.” (41 million copies sold)
  • Black Ops Cold War (2020): “Treyarch and Raven Software took years to create the game with a team of hundreds of creatives. They ultimately spent over $700 million in development costs over the game’s lifecycle.” (30 million copies sold)
  • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    So like what games do you ban?

    My kids are only allowed to play the Steam re-release of Noah’s Ark for NES..

    Nah. I’m just fucking with you.

    My kids are specificially not allowed to play the Call of Duty series, and anything with game art that I could mistake for it. (Some modern warfare style games accept funding from the US military, and I can’t be arsed to keep track of which ones.)

    For some idea where I draw the line, I do play Halo with my older kids.

      • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        I dunno, since if recently got a Steam re-release, it seems like someone must still be buying Noah’s Adventure, even today.

        • brsrklf@jlai.luEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          Not sure which game you’re thinking about, there are lots of shitty Christian shovelware from that era, but Konami’s Noah’s Ark has nothing to do with it. And very little to do with the biblical story really.

          I had that game on the NES (and I’m not in a Christian or religious family at all).

          It’s a real game, the arcade-y kind that tries to kill you all the time. It’s quite hard.

          • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
            2·
            24 hours ago

            Yeah, that’s the one I meant.

            I did assume it was Bible skinned shovelware.

            But being made by classic era Konami and getting a Steam re-release had me confused.

            That’s good to hear. I guess I’ll keep an eye out for it on my next retro game deep shopping trip.