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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsA modern AAA game can cost $100 million or more to develop, and selected reported or estimated budgets reach roughly $174 million to $300 million. Those figures are not a universal price list: some cover development or production alone, while others include marketing, post-launch work, or lifetime spending. There is no established, audited industry-wide average or fixed budget threshold that defines AAA.
What do published AAA game budgets actually measure?
“Cost to make” can refer to several different totals. Development or production spending is not interchangeable with an all-in figure that adds marketing, post-launch operations, or a game’s cumulative lifetime costs. The examples below also differ in how their figures became public: some come from company reporting, while others are estimates or disclosures reported through legal proceedings. Omdia’s 2025 overview and Ampere Analysis’s 2025 report discuss figures with these differing scopes and source statuses.
| Game or benchmark | Reported figure | What the figure represents and its qualification |
|---|---|---|
| AAA development benchmark | $100 million or more | Boston Consulting Group’s 2024 description of AAA development as a $100 million endeavor, “and often much more.” This is a broad benchmark, not an official minimum or audited industry average. |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | $174 million | Development cost published by CD Projekt Red in shareholder reporting, as described by Omdia in 2025. |
| Horizon Forbidden West | $212 million | A reported figure cited by Omdia in 2025; it is not presented here as a standardized, directly comparable audited budget. |
| Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 | $300 million estimated | An estimate cited by Omdia in 2025. “Estimated” matters: it is not the same disclosure type as a company-published development cost. |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | $700 million | Lifetime costs cited by Omdia in 2025 from a court filing. This broader lifetime total must not be compared directly with a development-only figure. |
Ampere Analysis’s 2025 chart also lists selected production-cost estimates for titles including Forspoken, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Forbidden West, The Last of Us Part II, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. It is a selection of estimates, not a representative market average; individual figures should retain that source-status qualification.
Why does one AAA game cost more than another?
People and schedule
Large teams working for longer periods are a major cost pressure. Ampere Analysis identifies wage inflation and time to market as factors affecting production budgets. A longer schedule also means more labor spending before release, even when the game’s planned content does not change.
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Scope, content, and technical ambition
The amount of content, visual fidelity, technical complexity, and number of supported platforms affect the workload. Releasing across several platforms can require additional development and testing work; a broader game scope can add content and production time.
Live-service operations
Games built for ongoing service can require spending beyond initial development. Boston Consulting Group notes that live-service titles may involve longer development and investment in data centers, matchmaking, community engagement, and operations and support personnel. Those continuing obligations make their costs especially difficult to compare with a self-contained production budget.
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Are AAA budgets getting larger?
Boston Consulting Group reported that PC and console AAA budgets grew at a 6% compound annual growth rate from 2017 through 2022. In its December 2024 analysis, it forecast 8% annual compound growth for 2022–2028. The first number describes a past market trend; the second is a forecast made at the time of that report, not a guaranteed result or the annual increase for every individual game.
How to compare two reported game budgets
- Check the boundary: Is the number for development or production, or does it include marketing, post-launch support, or lifetime spending?
- Check the provenance: Is it a company disclosure, legal filing, analyst estimate, or secondary report? Treat those as different levels and kinds of evidence.
- Compare like production models: A single-player release and a live-service game may have very different ongoing infrastructure and support costs.
- Account for scope and schedule: Platform count, game ambition, and development duration can change the workload behind a figure.
Can studios bring AAA costs down?
Ampere Analysis identifies approaches such as reducing scope, using early access, adopting off-the-shelf tools, outsourcing, using AI, or developing for a single platform. These are possible production strategies, not guaranteed savings: their effects depend on the project, and the available figures do not establish a fixed amount saved by any one approach.
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