Call of Duty Reveals Massive Development Budgets

Activision has disclosed the budgets of three Call of Duty games, with some reaching impressively high figures ranging from $450 to $700 million. These massive Call of Duty development budgets mark the highest ever seen for the franchise, with Black Ops Cold War at the top.

Making video games is no small feat. The development process usually takes many years and costs companies a large amount of effort and money. While certain indie games are widely known for having been developed on relatively small budgets raised on platforms like Kickstarter, the AAA realm is quite different. The prices of blockbuster titles have grown bigger year by year, surpassing classic games that were considered “expensive” at the time. Among the most expensive games ever made are Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Last of Us Part 2. However, none of these come close to the recently revealed budgets for Call of Duty titles.

As reported by Game File, Activision’s head of creative on the Call of Duty franchise, Patrick Kelly, revealed in a California court filing on December 23 the budgets for Black Ops 3, Modern Warfare (2019), and Black Ops Cold War, with the latter exceeding $700 million in development costs. The game took Activision many years to complete and sold more than 30 million copies. This number is followed by Modern Warfare, where Infinity Ward invested more than $640 million in development, selling 41 million copies. And finally, Black Ops 3, with the smallest budget of the three at $450 million, still doubles the $220 million development cost of The Last of Us Part 2.

Black Ops Cold War Exceeded $700 Million in Development Costs

The Black Ops Cold War budget is the highest ever seen in video games, surpassing even Star Citizen’s massive $644 million in development costs. This is surprising given that Black Ops Cold War was financed by a single company, whereas Star Citizen received funding through crowdfunding over an 11-year period.

It's interesting to think about how much prices for games like Black Ops 6 could have increased since the debut of Black Ops Cold War in 2020. Budgets are increasing annually, according to the trend. For example, the 1997 release of Final Fantasy 7, which was a graphical and technical revolution, cost $40 million, which at the time was regarded as a huge budget. Now, that amount seems insignificant in comparison to the current prices of AAA games. Activision's recently disclosed budgets are unmistakable evidence of the video game industry's rising costs.