New internal documents have revealed that The Last of Us Part II and Horizon Forbidden West each cost over 200 million USD to develop.
This information was obtained from internal documents in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hearing with Microsoft. If you’re interested in the state of the video game industry, you can check out our other articles here.
Horizon Forbidden West and The Last of Us Part II Need 200 Million USD to Develop
An internal document published in the FTC and Microsoft hearing has discussed the large amount of funds required in the development of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s games.
Interestingly enough, the redacted information also appeared to have been done in pen and when scanned by a lawyer, the numbers were still clearly visible. Not long after, the documents were withdrawn by the court.
Revealed in the document are:
- Horizon Forbidden West cost about 212 million USD to make and was worked on by about 300 employees for 5 years.
- The Last of Us Part II cost around 220 million USD to make and was worked on by around 200 people for over 5 years.
It is well known that modern AAA games cost more than 100 million USD to make, but this is the first time the full scale of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s budget has been revealed. Most likely, these figures do not include costs such as marketing.
Former CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, Shawn Layden, had discussed what was considered the “unsustainable” cost of creating a modern AAA game in 2020.