Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most impressive video games ever created based solely on its scope and interactivity. The game world is massive, believably populated, and incredibly, realistically detailed. NPCs can be greeted, threatened, assaulted, and more, with a wide variety of side activities offering even more interactions for the player. RDR2's narrative is long and intricate, taking the player to many different locations with distinct art designs. All of this is to say, Red Dead Redemption 2 must have been incredibly expensive to develop.

It's no secret that development costs continue to rise, especially for large open world games. The incredible investment needed to produce a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 can be easily recouped, though, as evidenced by Cyberpunk 2077 sales surpassing development costs its first day of release, despite the notorious controversy surrounding that game. Companies aren't always so eager to disclose such financial data, though, and the question of cost becomes more complicated when considering other contributing factors, like marketing expenses and the cost of manufacturing physical copies.

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Unfortunately, Rockstar Games seems content to leave the sum required to get Red Dead Redemption 2 out the door a bit of a mystery. While the only way to know for sure is if Rockstar decides to divulge a figure, an estimation by VentureBeat shortly after the game launched placed the total cost of RDR2 around $540 million, with potentially half of that being the marketing budget. Part of the staggering cost is also due to the salaries paid to developers over the eight year time commitment.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Might Be The Most Expensive Game Ever

Red Dead Online Blood Money Capitale

Rockstar's Western epic tops Wikipedia's list of most expensive video games to develop, also using VentureBeat's estimation. The top five include Star Citizen ($320 million and counting according to Cloud Imperium Gaming), the aforementioned Cyberpunk 2077 ($316 million via Gamesindusty.biz), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ($250 million according to The Escapist), and Rockstar's previous smash hit, Grand Theft Auto V ($265 million, also from Gamesindustry.biz). Those last two appear out of order because the list order adjusts for inflation, meaning by today's accounting, MW2 was more expensive to produce.

This list is probably a bit misleading, since it relies mostly on analyst estimations and company claims, but it's fascinating to see the crowd surrounding Red Dead Redemption 2 regardless. MW2 had a similarly massive marketing budget, with four times the development cost going to advertising, making up 80 percent of the total expenses. Star Citizen is also an interesting one to see there, since the game has technically never launched. One game that comes to mind that could potentially be missing from the list is World of Warcraft, since it has essentially been in constant development since before its release in 2004.

Seeing RDR2 near the top of the most expensive games in history is not all that surprising. The game is absolutely massive, and Rockstar continues to push the envelope with each title it releases. At this rate, the next game to top the list will be Grand Theft Auto 6. It has likely been in production for years already, and still has a few years until release, according to the latest GTA 6 rumors. $540 million dollars is a staggering amount of money, even for a high profile game like Red Dead Redemption 2, but it's a quantifiable measurement for the trajectory of modern AAA game development.

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Source: The Escapist, Gamesindustry.biz (Cyperpunk 2077, GTA V), VentureBeat, Wikipedia