Epicly expensive gaming failures

Game development budgets can be mind-boggling – and with big budgets come big risks.

Here are some of the biggest gaming budgets for some of the most mediocre games ever made (if they even made it to publication).

Enter The Matrix (2003)

Cost: $20,000,000
Metacritic: 58% – 62%

Enter the Matrix was an attempt to bring the hugely popular movie to the video game market in 2003.

This game released on PlayStation 2 and was criticized for its rushed design and lacklustre content. Some critics said that the creators (the Wachowskis) should be embarrassed and ashamed that they even let something like this represent their series.

Enter the Matrix cost $20,000,000 to make at the time and was not all that expensive looking.

APB: Reloaded (2010)

Cost: $100,000,000
Metacritic: 56%

APB development started life in 2008, developed by Realtime Worlds, and was meant to be a PC and Xbox 360 title. Realtime Worlds were on a quest to develop something they always wished for; a mixture between GTA and Crackdown.

The game caused controversy with its week-long review embargo, and when they finally came out, they were less than complimentary. Six weeks after the game’s release, Realtime Worlds entered administration, layoffs took place, and they were on the brink of closing their Colorado studio.

In November 2011, K2 Network bought APB for $1.5 million, a tiny little fraction of the game’s cost to develop, and renamed the game APB: Reloaded. The game was fixed up and later released on Steam as a free-to-play title.

Too Human (2008)

Cost: $80,000,000
Metacritic: 65%

Too Human was originally planned for a PlayStation One release, announced in 1999. This did not happen.

In 2000 the development was then turned to Nintendo GameCube, where it stayed for five years.

In 2005, Silicon Knights announced a partnership with Microsoft to release Too Human on the Xbox 360, as a trilogy. Then planned for a 2006 release, Too Human finally hit shelves in 2008 after 10 years of being in development.

In the interim, Silicon Knights became embroiled in a legal dispute with Epic Games, from whom they licensed the Unreal Engine 3. They finally lost the legal battle in 2012 and Epic won its counter-suit for $4.45 million on grounds of copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, and breach of contract.

This is Vegas (2010)

Cost: $50.000.000
Metacritic: N/A

Surreal Software had an interesting Las Vegas themed brawler / nightclub sim game in development, officially announced in 2008, planned for release on PS3, PC, and Xbox 360 the same year.

In 2009 when Midway went under, the assets of Surreal Software and This is Vegas was sold to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

In 2010 the game was cancelled. The estimated cost of the unreleased game was between $40,000,000 and $60,000,000.