The budgets of Call Of Duty games came to light during a lawsuit filed in California. The most expensive game was Black Ops: Cold War with $700 million.
During a case in California, Call of Duty The budgets of three games of the series were shared with the public. According to the statements of Activision manager Patrick Kelly, the total development cost of Black Ops 3, Modern Warfare (2019) and Black Ops: Cold War games is approximately 1.8 billion dollars. The largest budget was allocated for Black Ops: Cold War, developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and released in 2020. The total amount spent on the game’s development process and after-sales content support exceeded 700 million dollars.
Call Of Duty’s Development Process and Costs
Budgets for Call Of Duty games are generally kept closely guarded within the gaming industry. However, the documents disclosed during this case revealed how costly game development processes can be. While the development of Black Ops 3 cost $450 million, this figure increased to $640 million for Modern Warfare (2019). Cold War, on the other hand, attracted attention with its huge budget of 700 million dollars.
It is stated that some of these budgets include not only development costs but also after-sales content and collaborations. The fact that Activision has made such large investments for the Call Of Duty series is directly proportional to the series constantly reaching millions of players around the world. In particular, Cold War managed to attract the attention of players with its story set in the Cold War period of the 1980s, the popular Zombies mode and Warzone integration.
Call Of Duty is among the biggest series in the gaming world, selling millions of copies every year. These huge budgets are spent to maintain the success of the series and provide players with an innovative experience every year. These budgets are expected to increase further for Activision’s future projects. Call Of Duty’s constantly evolving gameplay mechanics and content support continue to keep the series at the top of the gaming industry.