Daily Mail says it reported the figure from conjecture
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.
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“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.”
I figured that the report about Red Dead's budget was pure speculation. Most figured that given the huge open world nature of the game that the costs would be similar to GTA's. What wasn't taken into account was the fact that Red Dead is based on the wild west and rock star could use any visual source material they wanted in order to make the game. Hell they could reuse the same game assets in order to recreate multiple towns and make small variations to them so each feels somewhat distinct. GTA was modeled on New York so they obviously did field work and spent time analyzing the city and all the distinct features. Not to mention the 100 mil for GTA also encompasses the creation of Rock Star's RAGE engine, which obviously cost a good amount. Red Dead's budget was probably closer to 40 mil which would be just about right given how rock star creates their games. And honestly no matter how good this game is I doubt it would have the ability to make back 100 mil since I don't think that this game will sell huge numbers like GTA. I'm not even sold on the timeline but only time will tell I guess.
