As
spotted
by
the
talented
Stephen
Totilo
at
Game
File,
we
now
have
a
better
idea
of
just
how
expensive
the
Call
of
Duty
series
is
to
make,
and
boy,
those
are
some
big
numbers.

The
information
comes
from
official
court
documents
that
were
filed
last
month
in
response
to
the
Uvalde
suit
which
alleges
that
Call
of
Duty
games
played
a
role
in
influencing
a
teenager
to
commit
a
mass
shooting
which
resulted
in
the
deaths
of
19
teenagers
and
2
adults.

According
to
the
documents,
Patrick
Kelly
(creative
director
of
Call
of
Duty)
specifically
addresses
three
Call
of
Duty
titles
that
the
suit
claims
the
shooter
played
heavily:
Black
Ops
3,
Modern
Warfare
(2019)
and
Black
Ops
Cold
War.

The
document
then
goes
on
to
reveal
the
budgets
for
each
of
the
games.
I’d
suggest
grabbing
your
underpants,
people,
because
the
numbers
are
nuts.
Black
Ops
3
(2015)
apparently
cost
$450m
to
make,
while
Modern
Warfare
(2019)
boosted
that
up
to
$640m.
That
ain’t
the
cake-taker,
though,
because
that
award
goes
to
Black
Ops
Cold
War
(2020)
which
cost
a
whopping
$700m.

Now,
there
is
a
caveat
to
these
numbers.
While
they
don’t
appear
to
include
marketing
costs,
although
that
is
unclear,
Kelly
does
specify
that
all
these
budgets
are
“development
costs
over
the
game’s
lifecycle.”
That
means
they
include
development
costs
after
release,
such
as
producing
patches,
balancing
the
game,
DLC,
events
and
so
on.
These
costs
are
technically
ongoing
too,
since
you
can
still
play
these
games
and
they
do
likely
have
at
least
a
few
staff
members
working
on
them.

Regardless,
those
are
some
staggering
numbers,
and
presumably
the
costs
have
only
risen
with
the
newer
titles.
After
all,
rising
development
costs
are
one
of
the
biggest
problems
the
industry
is
currently
facing.
Triple-A
titles
are
taking
longer
to
make
and
costing
more.

It’s
difficult
to
ascertain
whether
this
would
officially
make
the
Call
of
Duty
titles
the
most
expensive
games
ever
made,
although
they
are
certainly
up
there.
But
for
some
comparisons,
leaked
Sony
documents
revealed
that
The
Last
of
Us
Part
2
cost
$220m
to
make.
The
upcoming
Marvel’s
Spider-Man
3
from
Insomniac
has
been
estimated
at
anywhere
from
$280-350m.
And
then,
of
course,
there’s
Sony’s
failed
Concord
which
supposedly

cost
up
to
$400m
to
make,
although
it
had
a
more
complicated
development.

Kelly’s
revelations
about
the
series’
budgets
are
not
part
of
the
direct
response
to
the
suit
but
rather
a
general
description
of
what
Call
of
Duty
is
so
that
lawyers
can
reference
it
later.