The Last of Us and Horizon sequels both cost over US$210 million to make, accidentally revealed in court docs
Image Credit: Naughty Dog
It is well known that AAA games are particularly expensive to make, with large teams working extended hours for upwards of 6 years in some cases, however some of the exact numbers for Sony Interactive Entertainment’s critical darlings, The Last of Us Part 2 and Horizon Forbidden West, were accidentally shared in the court proceedings for Microsoft vs. FTC’s legal battle over the last week.
As found by journalist Tom Warren, documents were served for the legal proceedings by Sony, redacting sensitive information regarding team size, budget and total development times. The redacted information, however, was simply crossed out with what seems to be a permanent marker, and then scanned in by Sony’s lawyers.
The documents state that Horizon Forbidden West, released in 2022 cost around $212 million to produce, with a team of over 300 people working for 5 years, while Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II cost the studio $220 million, with approximately 300 people working for over 5 years.
Whilst none of this information is particularly suprising, it is without a doubt an unfortunately large error on Sony’s part. It has been known for a long time that big budget AAA games cost well over $100 million to make, but to know the exact scale of Sony’s highest regarded titles, this is a first.
Former Playstation Americas boss Shawn Layden described AAA development costs to be unsustainable, doubling from generation to generation, estimating that last-gen development costs had reached between $80 million to $150 million. This just shows that trend, with these costs likely only referring to actual development costs, and not taking into account marketing and other post-development expenses.
This is just the latest in discussion to come out of the FTC and Microsoft’s legal battle, as the regulator has become yet another blockade in Microsoft’s attempted merger with Activision Blizzard, over concerns of anti-competitive business practices. Many major players in the gaming space have taken to the stand in the past few days, including the controversial CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick and Xbox head Phil Spencer, both discussing their perceptions on the state of the industry and their respective companies.
