Call of Duty’s $700m dev budget shows the cost of making games is out of control

A soldier points their gun
(Image credit: Activision)

Game development isn't for the faint-hearted. While in many ways the cost of the best laptops for game development have come down and the best 3D software like Blender and Unreal Engine are free to use, making the idea of creating a game more attainable, for Triple-A game development budgets are soaring.

Court documents unearthed this week by Game File reveal that three Call of Duty games released between 2015 and 2020 cost close to $2 billion in total to make. Activision’s Patrick Kelly disclosed that development costs for Black Ops III (2015) were $450 million, Modern Warfare (2019) cost $640 million, and the figure for Black Ops Cold War (2020) was a staggering $700 million. The documents relate to a lawsuit brought by victims of the Uvalde school shooting, which alleges that the Call of Duty games promote guns and violence to teenagers.

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Tanya Combrinck

Tanya is a writer covering art, design, and visual effects. She has 16 years of experience as a magazine journalist and has written for numerous publications including ImagineFX, 3D World, 3D Artist, Computer Arts, net magazine, and Creative Bloq. For Creative Bloq, she mostly writes about digital art and VFX.

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