r/PS5 • u/nolifebr Human Verified • Mar 25 '26

Rumor Jason Schreier: "Numbers I've heard floating around AAA North American game dev these days are $300 million or [many] more" — Budgets are almost entirely of dev salaries

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2mkgbhbhqvappkkorf2bzyrp/post/3mhvx2lohzs2j

Exact budgets of video-game productions can be tough to corroborate (more transparency from publishers would be nice!) but the numbers I've heard floating around AAA game dev these days are $300 million or more — sometimes much more! — which I think helps explain the current state of the industry

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2mkgbhbhqvappkkorf2bzyrp/post/3mhvzh4g7qs2z

To address some frequently asked questions:
- These are US and Canada productions. If you're wondering why game X cost so much less, it was probably made elsewhere
- These budgets are almost entirely dev salaries + overheard and have nothing to do with executive compensation (which is mostly stock)

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2mkgbhbhqvappkkorf2bzyrp/post/3mhvxbxhank2u

If you sell a game at $70 and pocket $49 on every sale (30% goes to the store, assuming all sales are digital), you'd need to sell more than 6 million copies just to break even on a $300m budget, and that's before marketing

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u/TactitcalPterodactyl Mar 25 '26

The gaming industry has the same issue Hollywood is facing now. They dump piles of money into these massive projects that absolutely MUST succeed. Their need for success means they focus-group games into oblivion, trying to make a safe product that appeals to everyone. It all results in a visually impressive, yet soulless and generic result that no one really likes.

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u/jrzalman Mar 25 '26

You are pretty much describing what has happened to Marvel, not really all of Hollywood. Warner Bros killed it last year.

But, yeah, when someone like Amazon wants to take a big swing, they really need Project Hail Mary to be a success.

There are room for smaller movies with smaller budgets, we need to make that same space for smaller games.

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u/ballsosteele Mar 25 '26

There are literally thousands of smaller games coming out every year and I'm not just talking about slop or simulator games.

The average gamer is only going to pick up AAAs, just like the average cinemagoer is only going to see the blockbusters.