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The astronomical development budgets of the Call of Duty games were revealed for the first time after a court document confirmed Activision pumped $700 million into ****** Ops Cold War alone. First reported by Game File, a court filing submitted by publisher Activision as part of a lawsuit regarding the 2022 school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, included official word on the development budgets of 2015’s ****** Ops 3, 2019’s Modern Warfare, and 2020’s ****** Ops Cold War. The court filing also includes updated sales figures for each game, showing the huge revenue Call of Duty brings in through sales alone and before its post-launch monetization. First, some caveats. The figures detailed below include pre and post-launch development. That is, the cost to develop each game for launch, then the subsequent post-launch development costs associated with feeding the ongoing live service, meaning the development lifecycle of the game. Call of Duty games offer a range of free content following release, including new maps, new weapons, and new cosmetics for use across Multiplayer and Zombies. Activision monetizes Call of Duty post-launch by selling battle passes, store bundles, and, most recently with ****** Ops 6, premium event passes, released in the traditional live service seasonal model in the year each game has to itself before the next Call of Duty comes around. The development of this relentless conveyor belt of content, which often includes high-profile crossovers with popular intellectual property such as Warhammer 40,000 and Squid Game, does not come cheap. Now, onto the figures themselves: ****** Ops 3 (2015): $450 million in development costs across the game’s lifecycle, 43 million copies soldModern Warfare (2019): $640 million in development costs across the game’s lifecycle, 41 million copies sold****** Ops Cold War (2020): $700 million in development costs over the game’s life cycle, 30 million copies sold To provide context, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 2 cost around $220 million, Guerrilla’s Horizon Forbidden West cost $212 million, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 cost $300 million to develop. However, these games are not live services, and so post-launch development costs are not necessarily related to the figures as they are with Call of Duty. As Game File noted, these development costs do not include marketing spend, which for Call of Duty will be significant. So the true cost of bringing Call of Duty to market and operating it as a live service will be even higher. While ever increasing triple-A development budgets are a hot topic within the industry, and have caused some experts to question the viability of these sorts of games, Call of Duty operates on a different level to most of its peers. ****** Ops Cold War’s 30 million copies sold will in of itself have generated well over $1 billion in revenue for Activision, then there’s the live service revenue generated by the game during the 12 months before 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard launched. Even with $700 million spent on development and more on marketing, ****** Ops Cold War will have been hugely profitable for Activision. You can see why Microsoft forked out $69 billion to buy the company. Speaking of Microsoft, the math is now muddled by Call of Duty’s day-one launch on Game Pass, which some analysts had predicted would impact sales of ****** Ops 6 but boost subscription numbers. Microsoft itself sounds delighted with the performance of last year’s game, saying sales of ****** Ops 6 on PlayStation and PC were 60% higher compared to the 2023 release of Modern Warfare 3. Microsoft has yet to say exactly how many new subscribers ****** Ops 6 brought through the door, although CEO Satya Nadella has confirmed that Game Pass set a record for new subs on launch day. However, Microsoft’s gaming business has suffered devastating layoffs, and Activision has taken a significant hit as part of that. Microsoft has cut an eye-watering 2,550 staff from its gaming business since acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in 2023. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has indicated the cuts were related to the acquisition of the Call of Duty maker. Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

It's almost 30 years since the first Dynasty Warriors game was released, and the sometimes fighting game, sometimes hack 'n' slash, and sometimes RPG has come a long, long way. Back in 1997, Dynasty Warriors was a straightforward beat 'em up, and would-be rival to Tekken. Over three decades, however, Koei Tecmo's series has gotten ******* and *******, incorporating sandbox and free roam elements to become something closer to an open-world, crowd combat game. With Dynasty Warriors Origins about to land on Steam, one obscure and overlooked spin-off is also about to close down for good, and if you own it, you had better spend your in-game currency fast, because there won't be any refunds. Read the rest of the story... View the full article

Marvel Rivals is all about balance. The competitive hero shooter needs every character to be viable in several scenarios, and while that's mostly been true of Season 0, the wall has some cracks. Some ranged DPS characters are dominating matches, and other heroes don't have enough versatility to make them practical picks over the rest. This is bound to happen as a meta emerges, which is why it's now up to NetEase Games to make changes to bring other heroes back into the forefront. Luckily with Season 1, this is exactly what's going to happen. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: All Marvel Rivals codes and how to redeem - January 2025 Marvel Rivals events - all current and upcoming events Marvel Rivals Season 1 release date, start time, and news View the full article

The United States government has added ******** gaming giant Tencent to a ‘blacklist’ of companies it believes are linked to the ******** military. While the Pentagon’s designation carries no specific sanctions, it discourages American companies from dealing with its members. The ‘blacklist’ originates from an executive order in 2020, which prevented US companies from investing in companies with ties to the ******** military. Read More... View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

A new season dawns in Marvel Rivals, with Season One bringing new environments to compete on, additional characters to the roster, and balance changes to fine-tune the meta that has emerged since launch. Marvel Rivals‘ first full season is due to kick off on Jan. 10, introducing two new characters immediately alongside new maps, game modes, a fresh Battle Pass, and more. Later down the line, a mid-season update will expand things further. View the full article

It's that time of year again. Voting for EA Sports FC 25's Team of the Year is now open, giving you your yearly chance to nominate the players from the men's and women's games that you think have been setting the world alight for a card that streamers will blow thousands on being able to scream at. Read more View the full article

A new high-profile departure from PlatinumGames has been confirmed, after Bayonetta Origins director Abebe Tinari announced his exit from the studio. Tinari, who also worked as a designer on Star Fox Guard and the canceled Scalebound, has joined Returnal developer Housemarque, according to his online CV. The game designer is also known in online circles for helping save the world’s largest CRT television. Released in March 2023, Bayonetta Origins is a spin-off that has players exploring storybook-inspired words. The game aimed to introduce new fans to the action series with adventure-style gameplay. Read More... View the full article

I don’t want to talk to a game. I assume I’m not alone in this, because the tech’s been around for donkey’s and barely anyone tries to use it. Mass Effect 3 tried voice commands. Socom U.S Navy Seals shipped with a headset. "Dunno if I wanna be shouting out tacticool commands in my living room," wrote a Redditor on the subject four years ago, speaking to my very soul in the process. "Gimme the clunky buttons instead". Thankfully, you can also use your keyboard to interrogate suspects in ******* mystery Dead Meat. It’s a moody, slightly goofy noir puzzler that lets you ask anything you want. Whether this means you’ll always get a worthwhile response, I’m not sure. "Want to discuss their alibi? Probe them on the meaning of life? Confess your love? Or just troll them mercilessly? Your words hold power, and anything goes," reads the Steam page. Here’s a trailer. Read more View the full article

Of the many high-budget games that get released every year, Call of Duty titles remain among the most mysterious in terms of what goes into their production. While Take-Two and Sony Interactive Entertainment may drop some budget figures here and there about their top-selling, most lucrative franchises, Activision never brings up the topic. Read more View the full article

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard's first act, you must decide whether to save Minrathous or Treviso from a dragon attack. View the full article

HBO has premiered the latest look at Season 2 of its live-action The Last of Us show, and confirmed a release month of April. The trailer, which can be viewed below, shows another look at Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, following a teaser published late last year. [Hidden Content] Read More... View the full article

Path of Exile 2 provides players the ultimate freedom to build their characters any way they want. If you like igniting, freezing, and shocking your enemies to death with the power of the elements, the Sorceress is the class for you. Out of the builds that have emerged throughout Early Access, the one that scales the best through the endgame is the Lightning Sorceress build. Table of contentsPath of Exile 2 Lightning Sorceress buildSkill gemsLeveling skillsEndgame skillsPassive nodesGear Path of Exile 2 Lightning Sorceress build The Lightning Sorceress channels the power of lightning as a conduit to shock groups of enemies. She does this by meticulously using the basic Spark spell that you can acquire early on. The build’s damage might be slow to start with, but it quickly scales in power as you level up Spark and acquire other buffs to support your casting. View the full article

That Horizon Zero Dawn Netflix series might have been canned, but don't worry, Sony has another trick up its sleeve: a film adaptation. Read more View the full article

Helldivers 2 is getting a movie adaptation, Sony has confirmed during its CES 2025 press conference. What'll it be like? Well, as of right now the company isn't saying, but hopefully the answer isn't just a straight-up copy-and-paste of one of the game's inspirations, but with a few big name actors peppered in there. Read more View the full article

AI remains a controversial topic within the gaming world. Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 came under fire for using blatant AI-generated artwork in one of its bundles, and SAG-AFTRA members are striking over a lack of protection against artificial intelligence. It's a hotbed of issues for the creative industry. View the full article

Farming is one of several work skills your Pals are capable of in Palworld, and it’s arguably one of the most important. Pals with the Farming skill can drop or find additional items while they are active at your base if certain conditions are met. Here are the best Pals for farming in Palworld. View the full article

Valve updated the Steam Client for Desktop and Steam Deck with a new Beta release, so here's what you need to know. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

A new teaser for WWE 2K25 has revealed that January 27 will be a big day for fans of the series. With the Road to WrestleMania on its way, many fans are expecting that information regarding WWE 2K25 will start rolling out soon, similar to WWE 2K24 last year. With the WWE 2K25 wishlist page also mentioning that more information will be shared by January 28, many gamers are already looking forward to said date. View the full article

At CES 2025, Nvidia introduced its GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs, powered by the new Blackwell architecture. These Nvidia graphics cards offer significant performance improvements and advanced AI capabilities, enhancing the gaming and creative experience. View the full article

NVIDIA had some pretty big announcements at CES 2025 for gamers and game developers, like the announcement of the new 'Blackwell' GeForce RTX 50 Series, DLSS 4 and bringing AI to Shaders. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Path of Exile 2Steam DeckHELLDIVERS™ 2ELDEN RINGBaldur's Gate 3Cyberpunk 2077Grand Theft Auto VCall of Duty®EA SPORTS FC™ 25Call of Duty®: ****** Ops 6* excluding free to play games View top 100 on SteamDBView the full article

Jackdaw’s Rest is a main quest in Hogwarts Legacy, where you explore the location of Richard Jackdaw’s death to find the missing pages of the book you found for Professor Fig. This page will explain how you can complete Jackdaw’s Rest, including the cave puzzles, in Hogwarts Legacy. How to unlock the Jackdaw’s Rest quest Jackdaw’s Rest is the 15th main quest in Hogwarts Legacy. It is unlocked after you learn Expelliarmus from Professor Hecat’s “Assignment 2” and then complete one of four specific house quests. The quest you have to complete will depend on which house you’re in. View the full article

Nvidia is set to redefine gaming performance and visuals with the introduction of DLSS 4, unveiled at CES 2025. This latest advancement in Nvidia's DLSS suite brings Multi Frame Generation, a groundbreaking technology exclusive to the new GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs and laptops. View the full article

The new GPUs Read Entire Article View the full article

After NVIDIA previously released a Beta script to setup GeForce NOW on Steam Deck, they're about to make it a whole lot better with a native app for full Steam Deck support. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article