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)
  • Electric@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    I feel like that’s more on the parents for not informing their child about the MIC and how they basically sign themselves away to be government property.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Could be, but my nephew played thousands of hours of CoD.

      This is my admission that I don’t think I’m a good enough parent to counteract thousands of hours spent with a MIC funded game.

      I actually trust my kids would probably do better anyway, but they know I would be disappointed if they bought their own copies of CoD, and they seem to respect that.

      I don’t want my kids participating in the daily network effect of CoD, either. I don’t want them encouraging their friends to try CoD by having and regularly playing a copy.

      That said, if I ever catch my kids playing CoD at a random LAN party - without me - they probably realize they’ll get a lecture - that they had better invite me next time. (I’m pretty sure I can out-parent the MIC for hour or two a month.)

      • Electric@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        Give them Titanfall 2 if you want them to play a good shooter. Sure, they might come out of the campaign with depression, but certainly not with heads filled with propaganda!