GTA IV: Most expensive game ever developed?
Producer estimates price tag of $100 million and notes criticism comes mostly from people who haven't played the game
GTA IV producer Leslie Benzies has estimated that the game cost Rockstar approximately USD 100 million to create.
In an interview with the Times Online, Benzies also said that more than 1000 people worked on the title for a period of over a three and a half years.
If the figure is correct, GTA IV's development costs would make it the most expensive game ever made - topping the USD 70 million+ development budget for Sega's Shenmue for the Dreamcast.
GTA IV, however, has already sold over 600,000 copies on the first day in the UK alone and analysts have predicted that the game could gross more than USD 400 million in its first week.
Benzies also noted that much of the beating Rockstar has taken over the past three years - by the government and the press - comes from people who haven't played the game.
Why do people object to a game they haven't even played?
"You kill prostitutes," he told the Times Online. "That's usually the objection."
"There is a big fear factor here. It's the coming of the railways. It's Elvis shaking his hips. It's cars going over 25 miles an hour and making people explode."