The Star Citizen budget has certainly raised an impressive amount of money solely through crowdfunding, recently crossing the $250 million milestone. What’s even more impressive is that this unfinished MMORPG will soon be the most expensive game ever made, and Star Citizen hasn’t even had an official beta test.
As highlighted by industry commentator Ryan Brown, PC Games Insider reported that the Star Citizen budget has surpassed more than $250 million. At the time of writing, the game’s official funding counter shows $251,355,212 raised to date. What’s really interesting is that we’re rapidly approaching the production and marketing budget of Grand Theft Auto 5, and it’s all but certain that this ambitious game from Roberts Space Industries will soon be the most expensive game ever made.
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Let’s look at some numbers: going by Wikipedia’s list of most expensive video games to develop, Star Citizen would firmly be in second place with it’s $251 million and change, just behind the $265 million production and marketing budget of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5.
However, things get a bit more complex than that once you factor in inflation. Without going too much into economics, inflation means that $1 today isn’t worth $1 ten years ago or even last year. When the budgets are adjusted for inflation, these are the top three most expensive games ever made:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: $292 million
- Grand Theft Auto 5: $285 million
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: $223+ million
Even with inflation-adjusted dollars, Star Citizen has already secured the #3 spot. According to PC Games Insider, roughly $50 of that — or about 20% of the developer’s entire war chest — has been raised in the last year alone.
The way things are going, it’s very likely that we’ll see Star Citizen crowned as the most expensive game ever made by the end of 2021. They just need to raise another $41 million, and 2019 isn’t even over yet.
