Activision, publisher of the incredibly popular Call of Duty franchise, has revealed that its shared world shooter, Destiny, will cost $500 million to develop and market.
The figure is almost double the $260 million used to develop the smash hit open world game Grand Theft Auto 5.
At the Milken Conference in Los Angeles, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick explained, “If you’re making a $500 million bet you can’t take that chance with someone else’s IP. The stakes for us are getting bigger.”
An Activision spokesperson also revealed that a large portion of development costs were attributed to the development of a new game engine that will, in the long run, bring costs back in line with other triple A titles.
Analysts estimate that Activision will have to sell at least 16 million copies at their full 60 dollar price tag to break even.
Destiny was featured on Vision’s most anticipated games of 2014 list. You can take a look here.