Spider-Man 2 cost more to make than Sony paid for Insomniac Games

Spider-Man 2's budget is more than what Sony paid to acquire Insomniac Games in 2019.

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Previous SIE head honcho Shawn Layden tried to warn us: the AAA model is unsustainable. The costs for premium, high-quality games are getting out of control, commanding budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars. And when a game doesn't perform, companies will pull all the levers at their disposal to cut costs. This means mass layoffs, studio closures, product cancellations--all of the unfortunate events that have plagued 2023's games news cycle.

The cracks have been noticeable behind the scenes for some time now, and with the recent Insomniac Games ransomware hack that led to millions of confidential files being disseminated publicly, gamers now have an idea of just how much money their favorite games cost to make.

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A new report from Kotaku breaks down some of the largest spending for Sony Interactive Entertainment's first-party studios, specifically Spider-Man 2's production costs.

One of the most startling realizations is that Spider-Man 2's overall budget of $300 million is quite a bit more than what Sony spent to acquire Insomniac Games back in 2019; Sony had spent 24.895 billion yen to buy Insomniac, which equated to about $229 million back then.

Spider-Man 2's budget overshot the total acquisition cost of Insomniac Games by some $71 million, which, years ago, used to be almost enough to fund an entirely separate AAA game. The studio, like the rest of the entire world, is currently dealing with inflation-driven spending.

Another interesting tidbit regarding this news: In 2019, the Insomniac Games acquisition cost was worth roughly $229 million. In present day, that value is worth just $174 million.

This shocking forex rate illustrates what Sony is currently facing on all sides of its business (it's all bad, though, as USD $ -> yen conversions will now yield more domestic Japanese yen for Sony).