Game development: systems,types, characters

Wargaming Company will switch to a distributed game development system Wargaming company has announced the beginning of large-scale changes in the structure of the development department. Created 18 years ago, Wargaming today unites more than 4,000 professionals working in 15 offices around the world. More than half of the company's divisions are development studios, where such Wargaming projects as World of Tanks, as well as World of Warplanes, World of Warships, and World of Tanks Blitz, are created and developed. The total audience of the company's projects is more than 150 million people. In order to make working on projects more flexible and efficient, Wargaming is reforming the development department and will switch from an approach in which each development studio is engaged in creating certain games to a distributed development system. In accordance with the new approach, project teams will be formed in Wargaming. At the same time, the geographical location of the employees who are part of the teams takes a back seat. "In a rapidly changing and dynamically growing video game market, it is possible to achieve success only by constantly developing and changing," says Mathias Mullerinn, head of the Wargaming development department. - With the help of one studio, you can create a hit, you can support and develop it, but this will require a constant increase in staff and complication of the management procedure. Distributed development will allow us to unite teams from different studios and different offices, focusing on creating what our players are waiting for. I am sure that we will all notice the positive effect of these changes very soon." Recall that Mathias Mullerinn headed the development of Wargaming in 2015. Before that, he was the head of the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment for more than 6 years, known for such projects as Max Payne and Alan Wake. Games for $100 million: the most expensive video games in history What do you think is the most expensive video game? Chris Roberts ' everlasting Star Citizen? No, not YET. But she has every chance of ever establishing herself on the throne because the development of this cosmosim is far from finished if it will ever be finished at all. While the releases of 2021 are massively moving to a later date (why do we need games if there are no consoles and video cards anyway?!), we decided to recall the most expensive game projects of all time. Sit down comfortably, the list promises to be interesting. Major publishers have long been talking about the need to increase the average price tag for AAA games, referring to the increase in the cost of development. Today, in contrast to the 80-90s of the last century, when game hits were created by tiny teams and/or single authors, hundreds, and often thousands of people around the world take part in the development of large projects, expensive equipment, and technologies are involved, including those used in the filming of films. It is not surprising that the budget of some games already exceeds the cost of creating an average Hollywood blockbuster. The most expensive movie in history today is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, released in 2011. According to Forbes, the production of the picture cost more than $410.6 million, taking into account inflation, this is over $480 million in prices in 2021. Video games are still far from such figures, but they are trying - "the best of the best" could easily claim a place in the Top 10 most expensive films in the history of Hollywood. Video game creators do not like to disclose the amounts spent on development, so the data below is far from complete – these are either figures published by publishers in quarterly and annual financial reports, or amounts announced by company representatives in press interviews and during public speeches, or costs calculated by business analysts based on indirect data. There are almost no MMOGs and game services in this list, the development of which can take decades, and support costs no less than the creation of new content. In most cases, marketing costs are also included in the development cost. The total amounts are given to the prices of January 2021, taking into account inflation. The online calculator of the US Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics is used for the calculation. In this article, we decided to limit ourselves to games that cost more than $100 million to create.

1. Cyberpunk 2077 The budget is $330 million. Release year 2020 Developer of CD Projekt Red Publisher of CD Projekt

Cyberpunk 2077 is undoubtedly the most expensive CD Projekt Red game, but the figures given here are quite approximate. In 1.2 billion zloty ($330 million) The cost of the development was estimated by analysts of the Polish commercial bank BOŚ, while CD Projekt itself has so far named only a figure of 448.5 million. PLN ($121.09 million) was spent by June 30, 2020, on Cyberpunk 2077 and several other yet-to-be-announced projects in the early stages of development. By the way, we still don't know what percentage of this amount Keanu Reeves received in the form of a fee. Or was he promised a percentage of sales? The difference between the figures named by analysts and the publisher can be explained by the fact that the CD Projekt report does not take into account the considerable amounts spent on marketing, which is called almost the most aggressive since the Halo 3 advertising in 2007. And $330 million is still far from the final figure. Firstly, a very busy six months have passed since the publication of the report, and secondly, after the disastrous release, the Poles are forced to spend time and resources of the studio on correcting errors, postponing the release of additions, and pushing new projects to a later date. And thirdly, the removal of the game from the PlayStation Store cost CD Projekt more than $1 billion. in the share price. Should these losses be taken into account in the cost of creating a game? Interestingly, the studio's previous game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, cost the Poles only $ 81 million ($89 million in 2021 prices), of which $46 million was spent on the development itself and $35 million on marketing. Pay attention to the ratio of creation and marketing costs: given that Cyberpunk 2077 was promoted much more aggressively, the above-mentioned amount of $330 million looks quite realistic. By December 20, 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 sold a total circulation of over 13 million copies. Of these, digital sales accounted for 10.2 million, generating $609 million in revenue, which gives us an approximate total revenue from all sales of $775 million. In theory, this is enough to compensate for the development costs.

2. Star Citizen The budget is more than $ 320 million. Year of release of TBA Developer of Cloud Imperium Games Publisher of Cloud Imperium Games

The legendary long-term construction of Chris Roberts, in the output of which is less and less believed. Preliminary work on the project began back in 2010. In 2012, the game collected a modest amount of $2.1 million on Kickstarter, and then the form madness began. As of June 2020, fans of cosmosims, the number of which Cloud Imperium Games no longer indicates on the main page of the site, have invested about $300 million in the yet-to-be-released game and virtual ships for it. In addition, the company has attracted more than $63 million in private investments. At the same time, the costs of Cloud Imperium Games, to put it mildly, are quite big. According to the report for the 2019 fiscal year, released at the end of December 2020, over 8 years of development, the studio spent over $320 million, of which a little more than $45 million was spent on marketing. Star Citizen still does not have an exact release date, and even the Squadron 42 single-player story campaign, which was supposed to be released back in 2014, has not even reached the beta stage yet. So Star Citizen has every chance to permanently secure first place in the list of the most expensive video games in history, regardless of whether it will be released or not in the end.

3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 The budget is $302 million. Year of release 2009 Developer Infinity Ward Publisher Activision

The most expensive and, perhaps, the best part of the Call of Duty series – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, cost Infinity Ward / Activision an impressive 250 million ($302 million in 2021 prices), while the development itself accounted for a very modest $40-50 million — more than $200 million the publisher poured into marketing. However, Activision knows how to count money. Modern Warfare 2 sold a total circulation of 22.7 million copies and easily compensated the publisher for all costs. Only in the first two months of sales, the game earned more than $1 billion. Recall that in March 2020, we received an updated version of the game without multiplayer – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered. Only in the first month of sales, the remaster sold another 3.4 million copies. Not bad at all for a game from a decade ago.

4. Grand Theft Auto V The budget is $296 million. Year of release 2013 Developer Rockstar North Publisher of Rockstar Games

One of the best-selling games of all time, which continues to make a profit even seven years after the release. As of February 2021, Grand Theft Auto V has reached a total circulation of 140 million copies, and this is without taking into account the free distribution on the Epic Games Store. The development of GTA V lasted five years and cost Rockstar about $ 137 million, another $ 128 million was spent on marketing, which gives a total of $265 million or $296 million in 2021 prices. Only on the first day of sales, the game sold 11.21 million copies and brought Take-Two Interactive, the owners of Rockstar Games, about $815 million in revenue.

5. Star Wars: The Old Republic The budget is $232 million. Year of release 2011 BioWare Developer Publishers Electronic Arts, LucasArts

The budget of an ambitious Star Wars MMORPG: The Old Republic from BioWare was called bloated back in 2011. At the time of release, the game had been in development for 5 years and its launch turned out to be, to put it mildly, chaotic. According to 2012 estimates, the creation of The Old Republic took from $150 to $200 million, and if you add to this an unnamed marketing share and the cost of maintaining the project for the past 10 years, it will probably run up more than Cyberpunk 2077 or Star Citizen. Unfortunately, we do not have this information. Star Wars Servers: The Old Republic is still working, and the latest Onslaught update (the seventh big update of the game at the moment) was released in October 2019. At the same time, Electronic Arts announced that since the release of the MMORPG, it has brought in more than $1 billion. income.

6. Marvel’s Avengers The budget is $175 million. Release year 2020 Developer of Crystal Dynamics Publisher Square Enix

One of the biggest commercial failures of recent times. An attempt to create Destiny without guns, but with Marvel superheroes, turned into a disaster that could bury the legendary Crystal Dynamics studio. Judging by the financial reports, Square Enix has poured $175 million into the development of this game, and unsatisfactory sales of the project (figures have not yet been disclosed) have already led to operating losses of $63 million. After a generally good start, the game, conceived as a service, quickly deflated. And despite the fact that Crystal Dynamics continues to release regular updates and even new characters, the number of players on the Network now rarely reaches 1 thousand people – this is a verdict for the game service. Nevertheless, the publisher is still trying to revive Marvel's Avengers, having planned the release of a version for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 18, 2021.To be honest, it is hard to believe in the success of this enterprise.

7. Halo 2

The budget is $164 million. Year of release 2004 Developer Bungie Publisher: Microsoft Studios

After the success of Halo: Combat Evolved, which turned out to be one of those games that sold the very first Xbox to users, the budget of the sequel was significantly increased. According to Chip Pedersen, who worked at that time in the Microsoft gaming division, about $40 million was spent on development, a lot like for 2001-2004, while marketing took twice as much – $80 million. The total $120 million gives us $164 million in the prices of 2021. Halo 2 became the best-selling game of the first generation of Xbox and allowed Microsoft to strengthen its gaming brand. The total circulation of Halo 2 as of May 2006 exceeded 8 million copies. As we know, it was followed by 13 more games of the franchise, and not only first-person shooters, but right now the sixth part of the main series is being prepared for release – Halo Infinite, which is scheduled for release at the end of 2021.

8. Destiny The budget is $153 million. Year of release 2014 Developer Bungie Publisher Activision

Another Bungie game on the list. After Halo 2 and Halo 3, the studio proved that it can be trusted with a serious budget, and Activision decided to take a risk. According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, the publisher planned to spend as much as $500 million on the development and marketing of the first Destiny, which would make it the most expensive game of all time. Bungie denied this statement, saying literally "not even close to $500 million", and noting that it was not about one game, but rather about long-term investments. Now it is customary to estimate the budget of the first Destiny at $140 million ($153 million in the prices of 2021), but it is still unclear how much money was spent on marketing in excess of this. In any case, Bungie did not make the four games stipulated by the contract, and two years after the release of Destiny 2 broke off relations with Activision, starting to develop the game independently.

9. Dead Space 2 The budget is $143 million. Year of release 2011 Developer Visceral Games Publisher of Electronic Arts

All three parts of the space horror Dead Space collected numerous awards, positive press reviews, and enthusiastic comments from players... and all three failed to sell. It's even surprising that Electronic Arts has supported this project for so long. The biggest budget was for the second part of the trilogy, for which EA allocated as much as $120 million ($143 million in January 2021 prices), equally dividing them between production and marketing. Despite the fact that only in the first week the game sold 2 million copies, and later the same number of copies were sold, it failed to recoup the inflated budget. Sales of Dead Space 3, released in 2013, turned out to be even worse, and after the unsuccessful Battlefield Hardline (2015) and the canceled Star Wars project, Visceral Games studio ceased to exist, adding to the collection of "trophies" EA.

10. Final Fantasy VII The budget is $131-238 million. Year of release 1997 Developer of Square Publishers Square, Sony Computer Entertainment

Final Fantasy VII is a legendary "Finale" for the first PlayStation, with which many people began to get acquainted with the Final Fantasy series and jRPG in general. Unfortunately, there are no exact figures for the development of Final Fantasy VII and the cost estimates differ almost twice. So the budget of the development itself is estimated at $40-45 million, but the amounts spent on marketing vary from $40 to $100 million. If we take the most "optimistic" estimates, the release of the game cost $238 million. according to the prices of 2021, which would move it to fifth place in this list, we will focus on more conservative figures of $40+40 million, which will give us $131 million, taking into account inflation. Final Fantasy VII, which was released later on Windows, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, sold a total circulation of 12.8 million in August 2020. In May 2020, we received a creative rethinking of the first part of the game – Final Fantasy VII Remake.

11. Grand Theft Auto IV

The budget is $122 million.

Year of release 2008

Developer Rockstar North

Publisher of Rockstar Games

Another game from Rockstar in the list and the most expensive game at the time of release. Grand Theft Auto IV cost the developers almost three times cheaper than the next numbered part, but it also earned significantly less. On the other hand, if there were no GTA IV, GTA V would not have appeared. The rather big budget of GTA IV paid off within a day after the release, for which 3.6 million copies of the game were sold for a total of about $310 million. In total, before the release of GTA V in 2013, 25 million copies of the previous part were sold. Interestingly, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) sold even better, its result was 27.5 million copies, but here we need to say thank you to the release on iOS and Android.

12. APB: All Points Bulletin The budget is $120 million. Year of release 2010 Developer of Realtime Worlds Publishers Electronic Arts, Realtime Worlds, Deep Silver

APB: All Points Bulletin is an amazing example of an action / MMO that first sank due to the exorbitant ambitions of the authors and the wrong choice of the distribution model, and then surfaced and calmly exists to this day. APB: All Points Bulletin is the second game of David Jones ' Realtime Worlds studio, created by him after leaving DMA Design (the future Rockstar North), of which he was one of the co-founders. Jones had a hand in such cult games as Lemmings (1991), the very first, two-dimensional Grand Theft Auto (1997), Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) and Crackdown (2007). Actually, after the success of Crackdown, the studio took up action/MMO about bandits and the police (who said GTA?). Preliminary work on the project began back in 2005, and its release was scheduled for 2010, just in time for the release of the new Microsoft console – Xbox 360. Ironically, the game did not appear on the Xbox 360, coming out later on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. By the time of the launch of the open beta, the studio had eaten up almost all the funds, including the attracted investments of $50 million, and a month after the release in August 2010, the bankruptcy procedure for Realtime Worlds began. An inflated development budget that exceeded $100 million, a strange distribution model in which players were offered to pay for time spent in combat zones, and unflattering press reviews sank the game. Already in September 2010, the APB: All Points Bulletin servers were turned off, and a little later the K2 Network company acquired the game, which cost $100 million, for only £1.5 million. In 2011, the game was relaunched under the name APB: Reloaded as a free-to-play and exists to this day. And David Jones took up the development of Crackdown 3, the release of which, after several postponements, ended in a complete failure, both financially and creatively. A cautionary tale.

13. Max Payne 3 The budget is $119 million. Year of release 2012 Developer Rockstar Studios Publisher of Rockstar Games

The long-suffering Max Payne 3, which almost accidentally got to Rockstar Studios, was not very eager to develop someone else's series. It is not at all similar in style and spirit to the first two parts, with a new, bald and flabby Max, who immediately did not like the audience, and even in Sao Paulo, and not in New York. In short, this game initially had serious problems. Rockstar doesn't really know how to play shooters, the shooting mechanics have never been a strong point of GTA. The development was very difficult, the process was delayed. Initially planned for the end of 2009, the game was moved to the middle of 2010, then to 2011, there was a rumor that the development was stopped altogether, writing off losses. Then Max Payne 3 appeared in the release schedule for March 2012, the first trailer was released, and Sam Lake, the author of the original Max Payne, said that "everything is not so bad". The game was postponed once again for a couple of months and on May 15, 2012, it finally appeared on sale, however, without any chance to recoup the budget inflated to $ 105 million. And although in the end the shooter turned out quite good and gathered good press (Max Payne 3 ratings are even higher than Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne), it failed on sale. The game sold about 3 million copies, which at such a cost was considered that not at all. The unsatisfactory performance of Max Payne 3 and the second excellent game of 2012, Spec Ops: The Line, led to one of the most unsuccessful quarters in the history of Take-Two. The publisher then lost about $ 110 million, so it is unlikely that we should expect the appearance of a conditional Max Payne 4.

14. Shadow of the Tomb Raider ever The budget is $112-137 million. Year of release 2018 Developer Eidos Montréal Publisher Square Enix

The budget of the third part of the Tomb Raider series reboot is estimated at $ 110-135 million ($112-137 million, adjusted for inflation), of which $75-100 million was spent on development, marketing cost another $35 million – not so much money by modern standards. Another thing is that the game, which practically copies the mechanics of the previous parts, was generally met with restraint, and the project did not show any record sales. As of February 2019, Shadow of the Tomb Raider has sold 4.14 million copies, which is still not enough for a game with such a budget. Weak sales of Shadow of the Tomb Raider are one of the reasons that the big games of the series were put on pause. Now Square Enix is preparing for 2021 a mobile release of the free Tomb Raider Reloaded, in which Lara will be depicted in the manner of classic games, and not the gloomy trilogy of 2013-18.

15. Battlefield 4

The budget is $112 million. Year of release 2013 Developer EA DICE Publisher of Electronic Arts

The fact that EA DICE is developing the next part of Battlefield became known just a month after the release of Battlefield 3. A new game, a new Frostbite 3.0 engine, which means new requirements for models, textures, special effects, animation, etc. All this, coupled with aggressive marketing, affected the project budget, which reached $100 million. In general, it was in 2013, the year of the generational change of consoles (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One came out), there is a sharp jump in the cost of development, and several games reached costs of $100 million at once. ... and publishers are beginning to talk about the need to raise the prices of"boxes". EA DICE did not delay the development and kept it within two years, it's true, the release of Battlefield 4 was accompanied by various problems and glitches. But all is well that ends well. And although Battlefield 4 lost to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which took first place in sales that November, in the end, the game paid off. As of May 2014, 7 million copies were sold, plus numerous DLC (because of one, China Rising, the shooter was even banned in China), premium subscriptions, etc. The last free add-on to Battlefield 4 was released in December 2015, and a year later Battlefield 1 appeared, which was already developed on proven technology. As a result, Battlefield 1 turned out to be twice as successful as the previous part, despite the fact that production costs came out less. Frostbite 3.0, which was tested on Battlefield 4, became the main engine for all internal Electronic Arts studios: sports simulators, racing arcades, shooters, RPGs, and even real-time strategies are made on it, so the cost of producing the first game on Frostbite 3.0 was completely justified.

16. Deadpool The budget is $112 million. Year of release 2013 Developer High Moon Studios Publisher Activision

Action-adventure Deadpool, which today will be remembered only by experts, was a good game, she was just unlucky. Firstly, we were unlucky with the release date, which almost coincided with the release of the first The Last of Us and mentioned just above Max Payne 3. Secondly, we were unlucky with the budget, which was clearly overstated. Thirdly, the completely banal and monotonous gameplay contrasted sharply with the incredibly charismatic character and the chic manner of narration, which is why Deadpool received quite low press ratings. And fourth, at the beginning of 2014. The license agreement between Activision and Marvel has come to an end, and all games with Marvel superheroes, including Deadpool, have been removed from online platforms. The publisher somehow miraculously returned the game to the stores just in time for the release of the film about the titular superhero, but this did not help the project anymore. It was unrealistic to recoup the budget of $100 million initially. High Moon Studios, which at one time rose to a series of third-person shooters about Transformers, was no longer entrusted with independent development, the studio only helped to finish the games of the Call of Duty and Destiny series.

17. Disney Infinity The budget is $112 million. Year of release 2013 Developer Avalanche Software Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios

Action/adventure sandbox with numerous characters and objects from Disney movies and cartoons simply could not be cheap, especially since the game was released on a whole lot of platforms, including Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Wii U, and iOS. In addition, in order to open new characters and game areas, it was necessary to purchase separate sets of physical (!) hero figures and special tokens that were synchronized with the game using the physical Infinity Base. Disney Infinity 1.0 was followed in 2014 and 2015 by versions 2.0 and 3.0 with minor improvements and additional sets of figures from other Disney franchises, ranging from Pirates of the Caribbean and The Incredibles, ending with The Avengers, Star Wars and Inside Out. Now gold editions of all three games, with all the characters, but without physical figures and a base for synchronization, can be bought on Steam for only 759 UAH. Interestingly, after the game was closed, Disney also released a special series of collectible figures of characters in the style of Infinity-Disney Toy Box. So the project definitely beat off its considerable budget.

18. Tomb Raider The budget is $112 million. Year of release 2013 Developer of Crystal Dynamics Publisher Square Enix

The relaunch of the Tomb Raider series in 2013, more serious and adult than the previous parts, was a very ambitious and expensive project. Development began back in 2008, almost immediately after the release of Tomb Raider: Underworld, and in five years it ate $100 million, including a fair amount spent on aggressive marketing over the past year. And although the game used the same Crystal Engine as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Tomb Raider: Legend, Anniversary and Underworld, the level of graphics and animation in the new part was significantly tightened, and the updated Crystal Engine formed the basis of the new Foundation Engine, on which all subsequent Crystal Dynamics games were made. Tomb Raider 2013 gathered excellent press and a rich harvest of awards at the end of the year, but everything was not so rosy with sales. The project reached self-sufficiency only 10 months after its release, by the beginning of 2014. By November 2017, the game's circulation reached 11 million copies.

19. Genshin Impact The budget is $100 million. Release year 2020 Developer of miHoYo Publisher of miHoYo

We did not save money on the development of the mobile gacha-RPG Genshin Impact. The authors set themselves the task of making it expensive, beautiful, and rich, which is what attracts players to this free-to-play project. Well, the Shanghai studio miHoYo did everything, and the budget is $100 million. (it is not specified how many of them were spent on marketing) the game was recaptured literally in two weeks. In two months after the release, Genshin Impact generated about $400 million on in-game purchases on mobile devices alone. Given that this is a long-running project, due to the support and addition of new content, the total cost of miHoYo will grow. We also do not forget about the cost of attracting new users, which only increases with the time that has passed since the release.

20. Red Dead Redemption The budget is $96-120 million. Year of release 2010 Developer Rockstar San Diego Publisher of Rockstar Games

The development of the first Red Dead Redemption was accompanied by a lot of problems, including technical glitches, but the authoritarian management style and the associated regular rework caused the greatest damage to the process. Some ready-made game mechanics and locations had to be redone from scratch, the plot was rewritten, the models were redone, etc. It was a real disaster, and developers from Rockstar Toronto, Vancouver, Leeds, New England and even a team engaged in the Midnight Club racing arcade were transferred to help Rockstar San Diego, which was clearly not coping with the project. All this led to several postponements of the release date and the expected increase in the cost of the project. Plus, Rockstar Games, as usual, has invested well in marketing. To recoup the budget of $80-100 in 2010 prices, the game had to sell more than 3.5 million copies. Within three weeks, sales exceeded 5 million copies, and as of February 2017, the total circulation of Red Dead Redemption was 15 million. And then the cycle of problematic development was repeated with Red Dead Redemption 2. From the point of view of logic, due to the increase in the development time, the number of employees involved and the size of the game world, due to increased graphics requirements, the budget of RDR2 should be at least 1.5-2 times higher than the budget of the first part, so Red Dead Redemption 2 most likely claims a place in the top five of this list, but, alas, these figures have not yet been made public.

21. Shenmue The budget is $73-108 million. Year of release 1999 Developer of Sega AM2 Sega Publisher

Magnum opus by game designer Yu Suzuki, an exclusive Sega Dreamcast developed by the company's internal studio. A unique game for its time with an impressive study of the world, which was supposed to sell the console itself to users. In the development of Shenmue, Yu Suzuki did not compromise – the game had 1200 locations, 300 only named characters, cut scenes are rendered in real-time, and Budo masters were called to capture movement. The game also had algorithmically generated weather based on real historical data and a day-night cycle. Very good, as for 1999. But due to a large number of unique game mechanics and subsystems, the number of glitches in the game was also great. We were talking about tens of thousands of bugs just caught. Naturally, with this approach, the game's budget skyrocketed – the development cost $47-70 million ($73-108 million in 2021 prices). And although Shenmue became the fourth best-selling Sega Dreamcast game, the final circulation was quite small, only 1.2 million copies, which, of course, did not pay off the development. And in general, the Dreamcast did not cause the excitement that the creators expected, despite some interesting solutions used in this console. As a result, Sega left the console market forever, focusing exclusively on games. Shenmue II (2001), released at the end of the Dreamcast's life cycle, sold absolutely disgusting – only 100 thousand copies. Shenmue III also got into production hell, was canceled, and revived on Kickstarter. And then began many years of development, constant transfers, and transfers, and again transfers. When the game finally came out in November 2019, it managed to become hopelessly outdated. Shenmue III collected very mediocre reviews and failed in sales, showing results twice as bad as the remaster of the original Shenmue, released in 2018.

22. Too humanly The budget is $72-120 million. Year of release 2008 Developer Silicon Knights Publisher Microsoft Game Studios

An action / RPG from the Silicon Knights studio, which spent 10 years in production hell. Initially, the game was also supposed to be released on the original Sony for the PlayStation back in 1999, but then Nintendo outbid the project and began to position it as an exclusive for sound settings. The release date was postponed to 2001. For unknown reasons, instead of pursuing this project, Silicon Knights devoted the following years to working on Eternal Darkness: Requiem for Sanity and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. The game was remembered only in May 2005. Now as an exclusive for Xbox 360. Moreover, we were talking about a possible trilogy! Unfortunately, by the expected release date at the end of 2006, the Silicon Knights did not have time to finish the game, it took another two years. The final budget has ballooned to $60-100 million ($72-120 million for today, taking into account inflation). And Silicon Knights managed to file a lawsuit in epic games in 2007 — for inadequate support for the Unreal 3 engine and violation of the contract. After that, she ran into a counterclaim from Epic for copyright infringement and the transfer of commercial information. The studio was supposed to pay $ 4.45 million to Epic Games and destroy all unsold copies of its games for the Unreal Engine 3, but chose to declare bankruptcy and ceased to exist in May 2014. As for the game, too human was released exclusively on Xbox 360 in August 2008. It also collected negative press. They scolded her, including for very mediocre graphics and gameplay. Sales amounted to something about 700 thousand copies, which is not nearly enough to pay for such a project. Other games with high budgets Enter the matrix (2003) – 96 US dollars. Defiance (2013) – 90 US dollars. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) – $89 million Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain (2015) – $88 million Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) – 82 US dollars. Sonic and Brass Knuckles (1994) – $79 million Watchdogs (2014) – $ 75. Crysis 3 (2013) – $74 million Tom Clancy's Ghost Exploration: The Future Soldier (2012) – US $ 74. Gran Turismo 5 (2010) – 72 US dollars. Rift (2011) – $70-81 million. Gears of War: Judgment Day (2013) – US $ 67. Heavy Rain (2010) – 63 US dollars. Final Fantasy IX (2000) – $ 61 million Alien Alien (1982) - $ 59 million DC Universe Online (2011) – $59 million Los Angeles Noir (2011) - $ 59 million Darksiders II (2012) – $59 million Super Mario Brothers 3 (1988) – $ 56. Gears of War 3 (2011) – $55-69 million Half-life 2 (2004) – 55 US dollars. World of Warcraft (2004) – $55 million Volkswagen is going to hire more than a thousand IT specialists, having lured them from computer game development studios, research laboratories, and other large companies, the largest German automaker Volkswagen Group is going to significantly expand its IT division with specialists who will deal with artificial intelligence, virtual reality, big data processing, and other advanced technologies. In the next three years, the company is going to hire about 1,000 highly qualified specialists, poaching them from companies that are engaged in research, high-tech development, and game development. Half of the thousands of newcomers will work in Wolfsburg (Germany), where they will join the main IT department at the company's headquarters, as well as the IT labs divisions in Wolfsburg, Berlin, and Munich. These laboratories are engaged in creating new solutions in such segments as the Internet of Things, Big Data, Industry 4.0, various mobile and connected services, virtual reality, and, of course, the direction of self-driving cars. Over the past few months, the Volkswagen Group has already hired a number of IT specialists from different countries and industries, including robotics experts, designers, and artificial intelligence researchers, who have joined the ranks of the Virtual Engineering Lab, Data Lab, Smart Production Lab, Ideation Hub and other IT departments of the automaker. Against this background, it is very interesting to see reports that Volkswagen is going to reduce its staff by 30 thousand people until 2025, while 23 thousand employees will be laid off in Germany alone. It was also reported that the German automaker is going to invest at least $3.5 billion in launching its own production of car batteries and reconstructing existing plants for the production of electric vehicles. How could the famous heroines of computer games look like with the figure of an ordinary woman, the portal is ready to answer this question Bulimia.com, which is designed to provide information and treatment options for men and women suffering from anorexia, bulimia, and other types of eating disorders. Alternative high-quality reproductions of Christy Monteiro (a character in the Tekken series of games), Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Cortana (Halo), and many others have recently appeared on the pages of the Internet resource. "Every game character that perpetuates an unrealistic and unattainable ideal of a female figure distorts the cultural perception of the female body, thereby insulting real women," said project manager Sam Daford in an interview with Polygon. He also added that game studios should make female characters more real. "Some companies and developers are already doing this [increasing the level of realism of computer game heroines] and we welcome these efforts," said Sam Daford. " We firmly believe that this should be taken as a rule in future game projects. The developers of the Tomb Raider game have actually already begun to make Lara Croft more real in the most recent versions, which are significantly different from the original. And although the new Lara is far from an ordinary woman, she looks healthy and energetic; in many ways, this is exactly what it would look like if it were real. We can say with a high degree of confidence that more realistic forms will positively affect the cultural outlook and the manifestation of respect for the female body." The gallery below contains images in which the famous heroines of computer games – such as we know them – are compared with their reproductions with the figure of an ordinary woman.