How Much did Halo Infinite Cost to Make?

I’m not quite sure I can put into words the realization that the biggest budget games can not only rival, but exceed the expenses of Hollywood film productions. You don’t really think of a game as something that takes literally millions of dollars to produce, but trust me, they’re up there, and the only thing more dizzying is that many of them make that money back and then some. On this subject, how much did Halo Infinite cost to make?

How Much did Halo Infinite Cost to Make?

At time of writing, no specific figures for Halo Infinite’s budget have been released by either Microsoft or 343. Developers, especially the triple-A ones, tend to be a little cagey about this sort of thing, so it’s not that surprising. However, there have been rumors floating around, and they’ve been doing said floating for multiple months now.

According to a rumor that began circulation through German gaming website Xbox Dynasty around May, Halo Infinite’s budget is ballparked at approximately $500 million USD. The Halo series was originally developed by Bungie, and on their own, a solitary dev like that definitely couldn’t muster that kind of cheddar. Lest we forget, though, Halo’s development was handed over to 343 in 2012, and 343 is a direct subsidiary of Microsoft. 

If anyone can afford to drop $500 million on a single game project, it’s definitely Bill Gates’ almighty company. Microsoft spent around that same amount creating and marketing the Kinect of all things. That went nowhere, yet Microsoft was none the worse for wear, so $500 million would just be a drop in the bucket for them. 

Halo Infinite also had a very protracted development cycle, prolonged by delays, fixes, and of course, complications caused by everyone’s favorite pandemic, all of which probably ate up a few grand at the bare minimum. So yeah, while it’s not confirmed whether or not that figure is the real deal, it definitely isn’t outside the realm of possibility.