Square Enix's triple-A title Forspoken could have cost more than $100,000,000 to develop, it's been revealed. The game previously known as Project Athia was first glimpsed a couple years ago, and while it always looked like a big-budget project the recent disclosure of its development cost is eye-watering considering the game has not set sales charts alight. The figure comes from the lead writer on Forspoken, one Allison Rymer. Rymer has worked for talent agency CAA in Los Angeles, before becoming a producer selling TV shows, and also developing her own screenwriting career, before the American was tapped to be the lead writer on an "AAA video game for one of the biggest video game companies in the world, Square Enix/Luminous". The information is all there on the writer's LinkedIn profile, on which she writes in the third-person: "She spearheaded the story behind Forspoken, which costs over hundred million dollars to make". First spotted by Timur22 on Twitter (thanks VG247), the high number to develop the Sony exclusive may seem a lot, but it's not so unusual among big releases. Triple-A titles are expensive to make and costs have been ballooning for years. Games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and The Callisto Protocol can cost upwards of $150 million, with their budgets allocated towards development along with marketing.
But such a big number associated with Forspoken puts its failure into stark relief since the game has not performed well in the market. Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda confirmed this with the judgement that sales had been "lacklustre" during a recent financial presentation. "While the performance of new titles with February and March release dates will be the ultimate determinant, we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/4 earnings", he added.
Recently, Forspoken developer Luminous Productions also announced that it is to be closed down and merged with Square Enix. With the state of triple-A game development being such a financial investment, the performance of individual titles can have a huge impact on their companies. With the long development time for Final Fantasy 16, it perhaps be safely assumed that the budget for Square Enix's signature title is even higher. It begs the question how sustainable modern game development really is.