Game Development is Becoming More Expensive

Take-Two Interactive says that the very expensive production, marketing, overhead, in the case of sports titles, licensing increase the risk.

Rockstar Games owner, Take-Two Interactive says that the games business is still growing, but that it's also becoming more expensive and risky.

"It's an expensive business, and the risk profile reflects that," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told Bloomberg TV.

"That said, those very expensive production, marketing, overhead, in the case of sports titles, licensing, they do create a risk profile," Zelnick said. "And from our point of view it embeds the winners even further. It actually creates a barrier to entry in our business." Zelnick added that a developer "cannot get in not without having a couple hundred high quality engineers and artists, loads of capital and lots of money to market the title."

Just Cause creator Avalanche Studios founder and creative director Christofer Sundberg recently shared his opinion on the matter saying that the state of AAA development today is unhealthy and most big-budget games will never make a profit.

Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto V has now shipped more than 45 million copies worldwide, including 10 million on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The number is likely to grow as the PC version of GTA V is scheduled for a release in March.