Big-budget PC and console games cost more largely because they require large teams to build increasingly ambitious projects over several years—and, for games meant to run after launch, to keep content, infrastructure and support going. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimated AAA PC and console budgets grew 6% annually from 2017 to 2022 and projected 8% annual growth from 2022 to 2028. Over a broad but different set of periods, BCG put gaming revenue growth at 13% annually from 2017 to 2021, then 1% from 2021 to 2023. That gap makes each large production a bigger financial bet, but public examples are too selective and differently scoped to establish a single typical budget.
Why are video games so expensive to make?
The central cost is time multiplied by people. A studio pays developers, artists, designers, producers, testers and other staff while a game is being made. A longer schedule or a larger team can increase that labor bill; having both at once compounds the exposure. Big productions also incur costs beyond staff, and many of those costs persist after the initial release.
Boston Consulting Group’s December 2024 analysis describes AAA production as commonly a $100 million-plus undertaking, often much more. McKinsey’s 2025 analysis says AAA budgets often exceed $200 million, with a broad range of $200 million to $500 million and schedules of three to five years. These are separate industry-level descriptions, not a shared definition or a census of individual games. BCG’s supporting chart adjusts costs to 2023 US dollars and includes full games and major expansions, but excludes routine downloadable content; its publisher identities are anonymized. BCG’s 2024 report and McKinsey’s analysis describe the scale, but neither makes a particular famous game a representative average.
How much does a large team over several years add?
Unity CEO Matt Bromberg offered a simple comparison in a 2025 McKinsey article, drawing on the Game Theory podcast by Lightspeed: “The single biggest value we could offer this industry is to help people build better games, more innovative games, more efficiently. If a game takes 300 people in three years versus 100 people in a year, you’re going to make a lot more games in the latter than you are in the former.” The comparison illustrates how team size and duration affect labor exposure and the number of projects a company can pursue; it is not a universal cost formula.
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Reported Sony filing figures show how large that exposure can become. Axios reported in June 2023 that Horizon Forbidden West cost $212 million over five years and had more than 300 full-time staff. The same report put The Last of Us Part II at around $220 million and around 200 employees. These numbers came from a poorly redacted legal filing, not a standardized budget database; they should be read as title-specific examples rather than comparable estimates of every cost category or market averages. Axios’s account of the Sony filing provides that context.
Why do AAA games take so long to develop?
More ambitious games require more content and production work, and longer development keeps teams and other project resources committed for longer. A delay can therefore raise exposure even if the game’s scope does not change. BCG identifies longer development times as one contributor to budget growth. Neither the broad estimates nor the named examples establish that every project is delayed, or that schedule length alone explains any particular budget.
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Long schedules also increase the risk that plans and costs change before release. A studio has to sustain a large production effort while the eventual commercial outcome remains uncertain. Where budgets are large relative to expected growth, publishers face pressure to choose fewer, larger projects; BCG presents that as a strategic response to the market, not proof that budget growth by itself caused a specific cancellation, delay or studio closure.
What does a live-service game cost after launch?
A game intended to operate for years is not finished financially when its initial build ships. BCG points to data centers, matchmaking, continuing content, community engagement, operations and player support as ongoing commitments. These costs sit alongside the initial production effort, and their scale depends on the game’s service model and how long it is supported. A development-budget figure that does not state whether it includes post-launch operations cannot answer what the full lifetime cost will be.
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How much of a game’s budget goes to marketing?
There is no industry-wide public series in the cited material that cleanly separates marketing from development across publishers, so a reliable general percentage cannot be stated. One clearly separated example comes from CD PROJEKT: in an October 2023 investor-day summary, the company gave preliminary figures of around PLN 275 million in production expenditures and approximately PLN 95 million for the global marketing campaign for the Phantom Liberty expansion. The figures apply to that expansion, not to a typical full game or a general industry ratio. CD PROJEKT’s investor-day materials give the company’s breakdown.
Marketing is distinct from making the game, even when headlines combine the two into a single total. The launch campaign is one cost; for a live-service title, player acquisition and ongoing operations are separate considerations. BCG also identifies rising user-acquisition costs as a pressure for mobile games, where privacy restrictions have made targeting and campaign measurement harder. Mobile acquisition should not be treated as equivalent to marketing a PC or console game.
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Are game budgets rising faster than revenue?
BCG’s estimates and projections point to a widening financial challenge, but the time windows matter:
| Measure | Period | Annual growth | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAA PC and console budgets | 2017–2022 | 6% CAGR | BCG estimate |
| AAA PC and console budgets | 2022–2028 | 8% CAGR | BCG projection |
| Gaming revenue | 2017–2021 | 13% CAGR | BCG estimate |
| Gaming revenue | 2021–2023 | 1% CAGR | BCG estimate |
| Gaming revenue | 2023–2028 | 5% CAGR | BCG projection |
CAGR means compound annual growth rate. The budget estimates concern AAA PC and console games, while the revenue figures describe gaming more broadly, so this is not a like-for-like comparison of one market segment. The later revenue figure is a projection, not a reported outcome. Still, BCG’s analysis suggests budgets were rising as growth slowed, increasing the stakes attached to large productions. BCG’s December 2024 press release summarizes its growth estimates and outlook.
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Why headline budget figures need context
A quoted budget may cover the initial development of a full game, an expansion, a marketing campaign, or a longer period of support. Public disclosures also vary in currency, date, accounting scope and whether amounts are nominal or adjusted for inflation. The examples above are useful because they show scale or distinguish cost categories—not because they establish the median budget or show that every part of game production has become more expensive at the same rate.
The clearest explanation for higher large-game budgets is the combination of more labor committed over longer schedules, broader production ambitions, and—in games designed for extended operation—post-launch infrastructure and support. Marketing adds a separate launch cost, but public figures do not support one universal marketing share. At the same time, slower revenue growth makes those rising commitments riskier.
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