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.