Ballooning growth budgets are a significant challenge facing the AAA video game industry today, yet some developers have successfully found ways to create consistently high-quality titles on relatively modest budgets. Among the most exceptional studios in its category, Treatment Leisure appears poised to achieve something similar with its forthcoming endeavour.
According to Treatment Leisure’s Capital Day Markets 2024 presentation, the company is developing its new project with a budget of approximately €50 million. To further the studio’s vision, the upcoming sequel, a confirmed motion RPG, aims to generate revenue of approximately 3-4 million units, thereby doubling its production budget. The primary platform has successfully acquired more than 4.5 million items to date. As a unique selling point, the project’s co-funding by Annapurna Interactive adds significant value to its overall profile.
Meanwhile, the upcoming cooperative spin-off, previously characterized as a mid-range title by its developer, Treatment, is backed by approximately €30 million in growth funding. Will the studio consider promoting approximately three million products in order to achieve a full return on investment? Can this highly-anticipated sports game really rake in the billions, and will its accessibility to millions of PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass subscribers be a winning formula?
Although title budgets have decreased, they still surpass traditional norms in the AAA industry, except when considering advertising and marketing expenses. Numerous prominent video games have boasted substantial investments, with some examples featuring budgets that exceeded $300 million, including a notable title that reportedly cost $315 million to produce. Additionally, other games have had budgets of around $200 million, while others have required investments of $162 million and $125 million respectively.
While Treatment Leisure’s budgets may have consistently lagged behind industry norms by a significant margin, this has not had any adverse impact on the quality of their games – indeed, they are arguably some of the best to have emerged in the past decade.
