Red Dead $100m budget claim unfounded

Suggestions that Rockstar San Diego’s newest project Red Dead Redemption cost $100 million to develop is not based on insider knowledge or available figures.

The source of the claims, a Daily Mail report, wrote that “Rockstar Games are thought to have spent up to $100million on the long-awaited project”.

The Daily Mail has since told Develop that separate reports arising from this claim is case of crossed wires.

The national paper said it sought the $100 million figure by searching various industry sites for news reports relating to development budgets.

The paper discovered that the most ever thought to be spent on a game project was indeed $100 million – the budget allegedly set aside for GTAIV – and theorised that Red Dead Redemption therefore cost up to $100 million to build.

“It’s not based on anything we have heard about,” the paper said.

Red Dead Redemption, built by Rockstar San Diego, is sold into retailers this week.

High-profile projects routinely carry with them sizable development budgets. Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi recently said that Gran Turismo 5 cost $60 million to build during its protracted development phase.

Yet Develop has recently heard from numerous industry professionals that publishers are tightening their grip on budgets – a direct consequence of the global financial fallout.

Avalanche Studio’s CEO Christofer Sundberg said that he had seen first-hand how publishers are reigning in on their budgets and costs.

“We’ve always been in the $20 million-plus budget area, but last year I saw things adjust to over $10 million,” he said.

“I think it’s a sign of the global economy and the bad times we’ve gone through.”