How much does it cost to create a video game?

Answer 1

You can create a computer game yourself for only the cost of your time, electricity and what other nessecities you require while producing the game. From there, go up to several million dollars.

How long is a piece of string!

Answer 2

That's a very good question. Video game budgets are not as public an affair as movie budgets are, for example.

Wikipedia lists the following very expensive games. They quote GTA4 as the most expensive game to date, but one has to wonder whether World of Warcraft has been considered in that estimation. MMOs also produce ongoing costs rather than one-time development costs:

- GTA IV ($100 million)

- Shenmue ($70 million)

The following thread quotes an estimate on the development costs for console games in 2001, as well as figures for the Final Fantasy series. [http://forum.beyond3d.com/archive/index.php/t-2832.html]

PlayStation 2 1 million

Nintendo 64 510.000

Dreamcast 400.000

Wonder Swan 400.000

Game Boy Advance 350.000

PSone 170.000

Game Boy 34.000

FFVII : 26 million

FFVIII : 30 million

FFIX : 38 million

FFX : 40 million

FFXI : 12 million

[http://play.tm/story/3217]

HalfLife 2: 40 million

Of course, development costs for independent/flash/shareware/open-source games can be much less. These are production costs for "blockbuster" games.

Answer 3

While high-end software is expensive, there is a very cheap way. It's called gamemaker. You can get the lite version, which doesn't contain as much features as the full version, but it's free. The full version cost 40 u.s. dollars. Anyway, This program makes it pretty easy to make indie games, and some are pretty awesome.

Answer 4

Specific costs include... the cost of the computers, the wages of the staff and the cost of maintaining the business premises.

Answer 5

you can create free game at pictogame.com