More than $700 million dollars: Activision documents reveal how much the studio spent on the development of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and other games in the series
Over the past few years, game development budgets have grown significantly, which is a cause for concern. And the Call of Duty series has become a perfect example of this trend: according to December court documents released by Activision executives, the cost of developing the series' games is among the highest in the industry.
Here's What We Know
For example, the budget of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in 2020 exceeded $700 million, and the relaunch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in 2019 cost more than $640 million. At the same time, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which was released back in 2015, cost $450 million.
As Activision representatives explain, these costs take into account the development of games throughout the entire life cycle for each game, including the release of new content after the release. However, they do not cover marketing costs, which are extremely high for Call of Duty.
Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in budget, all three games have demonstrated strong sales figures, helping to justify the significant investment in them. While these figures put Call of Duty at the top of the list of developers' budgets, it is important to note that such data is rarely disclosed by developers and publishers.
Source: GamingBolt
