"Not sustainable": Developers across the industry react to The Last of Us Part 2's $220 million budget

[Alabtrosmyster]

Give me a low budget Roll7 project over modern prestige Sony titles any day

This is OK, tons of other people do this kind of games! Otherwise you would now know they exist.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Wait till he hears GTA6 budget.

Most of it is hookers and hard drugs, for research purposes obviously.

 

[Vertigo]

Next ND game could easily bloat budget way passed half a billion. I’d imagine it’s built directly on top of Part 2’s assets and engine tho. Part 2 was developed before the inflation crisis. Now? Pain for all.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Moot point. If something costs 200 mil to make but gets you back in profit three times as much, it's more than sustainable. Make a turd for 2 million that sells like shit that isn't sustainable.

 

[flaccidsnake]

It's not sustainable from the perspective of trend-following, where 20 attempts at a trend bankrupt the studio and one hits the jackpot. From the perspective of the proven track record of a team, it clearly has been sustainable for ND, Santa Monica, Insomniac, etc. I think a brand new team of "veteran industry people" with AAA funding should not try to make The Last of Us 3 on their first game out. If they've made 3 or 4 successful AAA games, then obviously it makes sense to keep pushing the envelope. That's what it means to be on the cutting edge in game development. It doesn't undercut smaller great games like Dredge or Tunic.

 

[Sloane_Ranger]

I'm sorry - but this is sustainable so long as it makes a decent return on investment, the same with $200K games. There is a space for all game development price-points.

 

[BroodCorp]

The general sentiment across developers is that blockbuster AAA games are bloated in every respect. I don’t believe they’re picking on TLOU II.