AAA games still cost hundreds of millions despite LLMs, as marketing eats half the budget
willcb · x · 2026-10-02
Developer willcb notes that developing and shipping a new AAA video game used to cost hundreds of millions of dollars before LLMs — and still does today, because roughly half the budget typically goes to marketing and distribution. The implication: while AI may compress production costs, the distribution machinery keeps overall budgets unchanged.
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