After the cost of some of Sony's recent sequels have spiralled far higher than their predecessors, Ghost of Yotei seems to be bucking the trend with dev costs that are "very, very similar" to Ghost of Tsushima.
Ghost of Tsushima cost $60 million to make, with a team of around 150 people. According to studio co-founder Brian Fleming, in an interview with Game File, that team size remained "pretty similar" for Ghost of Yotei, growing slightly larger at its peak but overall taking less time to develop.
"When we look at the financials and the costs, the man years, the amount of months that the team – times the size of the team – worked on it, [it's] very, very similar, actually." The total size of the studio was augmented, as many games are, by help from external contractors, but that didn't result in ballooning costs – something that's not proved to be true for other recent Sony sequels.
Marvel's Spider-Man reportedly cost $90 million to make, while costs on its sequel are thought to have grown to $300 million. Between Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, costs went from around $47 million to $212 million. God of War Ragnarok reportedly cost twice as much to make as its predecessor. For Ghost of Yotei to have stuck so close to Ghost of Tsushima's costs given this track record is a significant reversal of a clear trend.
According to Fleming, that's a result of a core desire to keep the team small. "We always kind of felt like we don't want to have a team that's too big," he said. "We always want it to be 3% smaller than is the kind of minimum to do it." It's a risky strategy, one that Fleming attaches to the importance of necessity: "In order to do something great, you need a really incredible idea and not quite enough time."
If you think $300 million, GTA 6's estimated costs could be upwards of $1.5 billion - with a B.
