The Last of Us: Part 2 and Horizon Forbidden West cost over $200 million to develop and ship, new documents submitted in the FTC vs Microsoft case revealed.
The document comes from Sony and lacks proper redaction, allowing anyone to visibly see the numbers behind that were supposed to be hidden from public eyes. Those numbers indicate that projects of this size have ballooned in scope and budget, indicating that films and video games cost almost the same for studios.
Launching in 2020, The Last of Us: Part 2 cost $220 million to make over six years (or 70 months) after starting in 2014, almost a year after The Last of Us. Over 200 employees were working on this game.
Guerilla’ Games’ Horizon Forbidden West launched in 2022 and cost $212 million to make over five years (or 60 months) and began production in 2017 and ended in 2022. Over 300 people were working on this game.
Horizon Forbidden West’s sales don’t align with what we know as Guerrilla’s follow-up arrives on PlayStation Plus in February, and we know the sequel sold 8.2 million units last month.
Sometimes court exhibits get updated with new redactions pic.twitter.com/5m8WIb1g84
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 28, 2023
The court has attempted to remove the documents, but media sites have pulled the information in court; similarly, Microsoft has also redacted a document showing what studios they were looking to purchase to bolster their output on Game Pass.
