It’s official. The title of the “most expensive” video game goes to… Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV! According to producer Leslie Benzies, an unprecedented $100 million in cold hard cash was spent on the title.

It’s like making a theatre production, a few movies and an album all to fit into one package.

With a development team composed of around 1,000 people, a tremendous amount of effort was put into digitally re-creating New York City. According to Benzies, over 100,000 photographs were taken of the city, in addition to time-lapse cameras that were set on rooftops to capture the sheer intensity of the rain.

Sega’s Dreamcast title Shenmue previously held top honors in terms of production costs, with a development budget of $70 million.

Grand Theft Auto producer is Godfather of gaming [Times Online]

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