The most expensive video game ever created cost half a billion dollars. That’s $200 million more than the most expensive movie ever made! Why are video games so expensive to create? One reason is that a movie might be two or three hours long and have forty thousand words of dialogue to record. But a video game isn’t linear like a movie. Video game play might last eighty hours or more. The producers of one game on our list recorded 2.5 million lines of dialogue.
Read: Why Are Video Games So Expensive?
Read on to see our list of the most expensive video games ever made (prices adjusted for inflation):
#10. Deadpool
$102,100,246
The tenth most expensive video game ever made is 2013’s Deadpool, about the Marvel superhero character of the same name. In the game, the character forces video game designers to make a game about him. The game got mixed reviews as it contains a lot of crude humor.
#9. Halo MMO
$103,243,337
Ninth on the list of most expensive video games ever is 2007’s Halo MMO. Codenamed “Project Titan,” the game never made it to store shelves and was scrapped after just three years. Microsoft created the game in a failed effort to compete with “World of Warcraft.”
#8. Max Payne 3
$108,776,623
2012’s Max Payne 3 comes in at number eight on the list of most expensive video games. It sold 3.61 million copies worldwide and was only the 19th best-selling game of the year. Rockstar Energy Drinks held a casting call via Twitter to recruit actual gamers and include them as playable characters in the game’s multiplayer version.
#7. Red Dead Redemption
$109,078,902
2010’s Red Dead Redemption has sold an estimated 12.13 million copies, outselling even the popular Tomb Raider game. In the seventh most expensive video game ever made, there’s one goal that can be unlocked only by tossing a girl into the path of an oncoming train.
#6. Too Human
$110,473,147
Too Human is the sixth most expensive video game of all time. Completed in 2008, the video game took ten years to develop but only sold 760,000 copies. Too Human was originally created for PlayStation 1 in 1999 but because of the time in development, technology moved on and it was moved to Gamecube and then Xbox in 2005.
#5. Star Wars: The Old Republic
$211,481,334
Star Wars: The Old Republic is number five on the list of most expensive video games. Made in 2011, gameplay centers around a war between the galactic republic and the Sith empire. It takes place over 3,000 years before the Star Wars films and has a gigantic script. Over 2.5 million words of dialogue were recorded.
#4. Final Fantasy VII
$214,481,334
1997’s Final Fantasy VII is the fourth most expensive video game of all time. It sold 9.8 million copies, making it the second best selling game for PS1 ever. The video jokes that Final Fantasy is takes its name from the fact that the first game should have been the last game created by developers Square Enix.
#3. Grand Theft Auto V
$275,568,302
The third most expensive video game ever, 2013’s Grand Theft Auto is the fastest game ever to reach the $1 billion in sales mark. It broke six other world sales records and was banned in Thailand after a youth killed a taxi driver in 2008, imitating specific acts of violence in the GTA series.
#2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
$277,168,973
Actual game production on 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 only cost $50 million. However, the game’s marketing and distribution budget ate up $200 million, making this the second most expensive video game ever built. Not to worry though: five days after its release the game had raked in over $500 million.
#1. Destiny
$500,000,000
The half-billion dollar Destiny, made in 2014, is the most expensive video game ever made. Game production cost $200 million more than the costliest movie ever created: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Five years before the game was released, its developer company Bungie put an easter egg into the popular Halo 3 game that teased, “Destiny awaits.”
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