The title might have cost more than a Hollywood blockbuster

Oct 26, 2012 09:29 GMT  ·  By

Phil Spencer, the leader of Microsoft Studios, says that the upcoming Halo 4 shooter is the most expensive game that the company has ever produced by an order of magnitude, although he has not offered a clear figure for the amount of resources spent on the creation of the Master Chief title.

The executive tells Polygon that Halo 4 is the “most important entertainment product in the company” and then answered a question about the costs when compared to other projects he added, “Absolutely. Nothing’s even close.”

Despite the fact the Phil Spencer did not offer clear numbers, it seems that Halo 4 is more expensive to make than its direct predecessor in the series, Halo 3, which was estimated to have cost more than 60 million dollars (a little over 46 million Euro).

That game launched way back in 2007 and since then, actual development costs of video games and marketing costs have risen and presumably Halo 4 might cost as much to create and then sell as a major 2012 Hollywood blockbuster.

The entire piece on Polygon goes into more details about the development of the game and the way it was tested before going gold.

The new game is important because it marks the return of Master Chief to the series for the first time since 2007 and will see him explore an old Forerunner planet and deal with the aftermath of the conflict between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant.

Players will get a typical Halo experience, blending exploration and combat, with a new cast of supporting characters and enemies.

Halo 4 will be out on November 6 all over the world, exclusively on the Xbox 360 home console from Microsoft.

Most fans believe that it will be last title in the series to be launched on the current generation of hardware.