Marathon's development cycle and the subsequent aftermath following its release on March 5 has been one of the biggest storylines in gaming. That seems unlikely to change now that the budget for the live-service extraction shooter from Bungie has been revealed.
Hint: it's a whopper
As first reported by Paul Tassi of Forbes, the budget for Marathon is over $200 million. It's entirely possible that it sits at more than $250 million, per Tassi. It's worth noting that the figure is just the amount needed to get the game developed.
It does not account for the associated costs of keeping a live-service game of its magnitude running via maintenance and regular content updates.
Bungie's long awaited extraction shooter is here, but is Marathon worth your time?
As massive as that figure is, it's in-line with other similar live-service titles. For example, it was reported that Concord had an initial budget of $200 million, though that wasn't enough in the end to cover the entire cost of development, the rights to the Concord IP or its studio, which Sony acquired. That a game like Arc Raiders was able to be developed for under $100 million is an anomaly....
