Black Ops 6’s budget is said to be $700 million

summary

• Activision spent more than $700 million developing and marketing Black Ops Cold War.
• The cost of developing Call of Duty games far exceeds the budgets of other AAA games.
• Black Ops 6 features early 90s espionage thrills, with extensive multiplayer.

While most AAA games these days have multi-million dollar budgets, some games spend large amounts of money that border on ridiculous territory. One of these games is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. If the latest report on this is the real deal, Activision has spent over half a billion dollars developing and marketing the latest Call of Duty game.

In a reliable report always Stephen Totiloleaked court documents reveal what Activision spent on three Call of Duty games, one of which is Treyarch’s newest game, Black Ops 6, available for last- and current-gen consoles and PC.

Black Ops 6’s development budget is the largest ever for any game

In the lawsuit, Patrick Kelly, head of creative for the Call of Duty series at Activision, cited the cost of three Call of Duty games released between 2015 and 2020.

• Black Ops III (2015): “Treyarch developed the game over three years with a creative team of hundreds of people, investing more than $450 million in development costs over the game’s lifecycle.” (Kelly also reveals that she has sold 43 million copies.)
• Modern Warfare (2019): “Infinity Ward developed the game over several years and spent more than $640 million in development costs over the game’s lifecycle.” (41 million copies sold)
• Black Ops Cold War (2020): “Treyarch and Raven Software took years to create the game with a team of hundreds of creators. They ultimately spent over $700 million in development costs throughout the game’s life cycle. (30 million copies sold)

The above breakdown is based on what Kelly filed in a California court on December 23, 2024. It is part of Activision’s response to the lawsuit filed against the company last May in connection with the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which it partly blames on Instagram and Call of Duty as the cause of the tragic event.

I’ve never heard of a game costing this much money to develop. Compared to another AAA game, a revised court filing in 2023 revealed that Sony spent $220 million to create The Last of Us: Part II.

Maybe this is why Activision is so adamant about monetizing Black Ops 6? Not only do we get a regular dose of new cosmetics almost every week, but there’s also the premium Battle Pass, the more expensive Black Cell Battle Pass, introduced this year, a new Event Pass for the Squid Games 2 event, which It angered a lot of players from the community. I understand where the hate is coming from since this is a full $70 product with more monetization plans than a free-to-play game.

With Microsoft now owning Activision, let’s hope things take a turn for the better for the franchise. I honestly don’t see any game taking a $700 million budget or ever making a decent profit, even if it’s Call of Duty.