How Much Did Blizzard Spend On StarCraft II?

By Kevin Parrish
published

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty may top the chart as "most expensive game to develop."

So how much did it cost Blizzard to develop StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty over the last seven years? According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, the company has already dumped over $100 million into the highly-anticipated sci-fi RTS game, possibly making it one of the most expensive titles to date.

But the number shouldn't be surprising. Blizzard president Mike Morhaine said back in 2007--during the game's official unveiling--that the company really didn't have a budget to begin with. It seemed that an abundance of funds were on standby. "We'll spend as much time and resources as we need to make this game great," he said at the time.

Both Blizzard and analysts predict that consumers will quickly make up for the costs. "There is no shortage of consumers for StarCraft," said Kotick. "For a game that is more than ten years old, there's millions of people still playing it."

As for the analysts, they predict that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty could sell five million units during its first year of release. We predict that the number will be even greater.

As it stands, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will beat out the development budget set aside for Grand Theft Auto IV--an alleged 100 million. Red Dead Redemption was also said to rack in a development cost of $100 million.

Kotick didn't specify whether Battle.net was part of the $100 million spent on the StarCraft II project.

73 Comments Comment from the forums
  • zarko90
    Doesn't matter when SC2 is going to be released 3 times and there will be more than enough morons who will buy the 2nd and 3rd installments....oh and of course come the expansions, I'd guess at least 2-3 of them, if not more, Blizz love to stretch the lifespan of their retail games and their new graphics engines.... 100mil is a drop in the ocean for the company raking in the revenues from World of Warcrack...
    Reply
  • buddhav1
    You'd think with 100 mil in expenses, that full LAN support would be an afterthought...
    Reply
  • FATAL STR1K3
    morons... lol.

    clearly this is going to be one of the best games in the genre and will be worth the money. I don't know why people complain that's it is 3 separate parts. It will be so much game content.
    Reply
  • prozium42
    zarko90Doesn't matter when SC2 is going to be released 3 times and there will be more than enough morons who will buy the 2nd and 3rd installments....oh and of course come the expansions, I'd guess at least 2-3 of them, if not more, Blizz love to stretch the lifespan of their retail games and their new graphics engines.... 100mil is a drop in the ocean for the company raking in the revenues from World of Warcrack...
    I wish people would understand what they read. Starcraft 2 is releasing with FULL multiplayer and editor capabilities along with a campaign that makes the original tremble. Why is there two more EXPANSIONS after it for the respective other races? So that each race gets a full story, a massive experience. If you just play multiplayer(as i know many do), then you won't have to buy the other installments.

    Its like the difference between Warcraft III and its Frozen Throne expansion, little difference in that the campaigns simply focus on one race each with the others getting cameo missions.
    Reply
  • Pocket change to blizzard couple of months wow subs for deveoplment ;s.
    Not going to buy it im afraid lack of lan play and stupid idea to split the game and monitise it even more, 1 lot of development money for 3 games then they will probably start charging for maps, Bobby Kotick biggest software destroyer on the planet, only worried about monitising the whole game experience they better not do this with diablo 3, ill seriously head hunt the guy.
    Reply
  • aaron92
    No LAN = No buy. I'll just wait for a crack LAN, Bobby Kotick has the worst future set for Blizzard.
    Reply
  • cekasone
    And Blizzard will still have $100,000,000,000 x 100 left due to all the WoW subscriptions.
    Reply
  • @aaron92

    so when the cracked LAN comes out your going to buy the game and then download the crack, or just not going to buy the game? weak.....
    Reply
  • aaron92
    crackittobuyit@aaron92so when the cracked LAN comes out your going to buy the game and then download the crack, or just not going to buy the game? weak.....
    Blizzard use to be a great company, ever since Activision partnered with them, their game marketing and design has been all about maximum profits at the cost of game quality.

    I'm not feeding the greed machine.
    Reply
  • hydric
    most poeple are 100% complete idiots. They are not releasing the game 3 times. come july 27th the game will be release 100% followed by 2 expansions. ALl blizzard games in the past have come with an expansion other than diablo 1 and warcraft 1. I dont see what the big deal is. They are doing what they always do. However, not having LAN is lame.
    Reply