How much?

[recon]

How much (on average) does it cost to make a computer game? How much did it cost to make half life 2?

 

[poseyjmac]

you might be better off asking someone at valve:

http://www.valvesoftware.com/people.php

 

[BlackMesaDude]

i dont even wanna speculate but min. 500.000 $ its probably double of it but it is expensive and the more people working the more expensive the game will be.

 

[Yombi]

they did say a figure somewhere, and it was a crazy ammount :|

 

[switch]

its in some interview somewhere, I think it was 50 mill.

 

[Varsity]

It was 40 million at some point last year. But that's way above average.

 

[deathscent]

If you wanna make something like pacman, probably a good 50, probably less, as you can get the programs and stuff for free. Something like HL2, probably over 1,500,000. A game that I'm soon to test (medical reasons), somewhere 100,000 up. It all depends on how many people are making it, if your paying them, if they'll be credited, wages, anticipation of game, and last but not least, the price of the game. There are more and better variables to rely on. What I gave was a half-hearted atempt into a way of putting all this stuff.
EDIT: As you can see above my post, there are estimations on how much money was put into HL2.

 

[Mujuro]

Millions and millions.

 

[f|uke]

I have no idea, but I'm guessing somewhere in the tens of millions to make HL2.

They have a large dev team full of highly qualified proffesionals who have worked for 5 years to make this game. Lets say they make on average 50k/year (Very low estimate). Now they have about 50 people on their roster. If we consider the HL2 product to be the $60 silver package, then this accounts for just about 100% of their human resources.

Ok. 50 people, 5 years, $50k/each. Thats $12.5 million right there, not including space, utilities, and equipment. I'm sure the actual figure is much higher.

 

[Harryz]

$40 million dollars. I think it was in the PC Gamer UK Interview.

 

[Ahnteis]

As mentioned in the thread, VALVE HAS ANSWERED THIS QUESTION.

The cost was over $40,000,000.00 a few months ago. Figure in cost of paying employees since then and you're probably pretty close. (Although there's still publicity costs which could be high.)

 

[Beazil]

As mentioned in the thread, VALVE HAS ANSWERED THIS QUESTION.

The cost was over $40,000,000.00 a few months ago. Figure in cost of paying employees since then and you're probably pretty close. (Although there's still publicity costs which could be high.)

*cough* $40,000,000 bucks!!?? *cough*

*falls over dead*

 

[f|uke]

$50mil sounds about right to me. Imagine what VALVe could do with $100mil!!

Remeber, kids. Support the companies that make good games! VAVLe needs your bucks if we're ever going to see HL3!