Destiny's budget has been set at $500 million by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick who revealed the figure last week at Milken Conference in Los Angeles.
“If you’re making a $500 million bet you can’t take that chance with someone else’s IP,” he commented, as reported by Reuters. “The stakes for us are getting bigger.”
The big spend includes both marketing and development.
Analysts have said that Destiny would need to sell 15 to 16 million copies at full price in order to break even. Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia commented, “It’s a head scratcher. For brand new IP, it’s tough but it could post a big surprise.”
Bhatia predicts sales of eight million for Destiny. By contrast, Grand Theft Auto 5 had a budget of $250 million and had sold 32.5 million copies by February.
In time, Destiny could pull in big numbers "but there's no way they would come close to Grand Theft Auto," said Mike Hickey, an analyst at the Benchmark Company.
"Bungie's very ambitious plan is designed to unfold over a 10-year period, " an Activision spokesperson stated. "The depth of creative content, scope and scale is unprecedented and is required to bring Bungie's vision to life."
Despite the high price tag, Kotick said in February that Activision believes Destiny will be their next billion dollar franchise. You can find out more about the game, and the recently detailed game modes, here.
Destiny is set for release on September 9th on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
