Forspoken Reportedly Cost Over $100 Million to Make

Square Enix released its open-world fantasy RPG, Forspoken, not too long ago to a mixed reception from players. This presumably hasn’t translated into very strong sales for the game as Square Enix didn’t share the exact number of copies sold yet. However, a new update now reveals that the ambitious AAA project cost over $100 million to develop after going through multiple transformations early in its development cycle.

Forspoken released in January 2023 from developer Luminous Productions, the team largely behind Final Fantasy XV. It returned to an open-world setting featuring the fantasy kingdom of Athia, where protagonist Frey Holland finds herself mysteriously transported to from modern-day New York. With the help of a magical talking cuff, Frey unravels a mystery surrounding the doom of Athia and must put an end to the devastation using her newfound magical powers and abilities.

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Square Enix believed so highly in the idea of the game that it reportedly offered a budget of over $100 million to its development. This is according to Allison Rymer, the lead writer of Forspoken who recently posted her job description on LinkedIn:

“Allison was approached to be the lead writer on a AAA video game for one of the biggest video game companies in the world, Square Enix/Luminous. She spearheaded the story behind Forspoken, which costs over a hundred million dollars to make.”

Rymer seemingly took over story duties after Square Enix morphed the original narrative pitch by industry veteran Gary Whitta. The final result was enough to divide audiences and leave Forspoken with some of the lowest review scores for a AAA game released this year.

The $100 million budget isn’t really surprising considering the ballooning budget of most AAA games today which are also taking lengthier development times, not even taking into account the marketing costs that form part of those budgets. It’s unlikely that Square Enix managed to successfully recoup its costs on Forspoken, though we’ll have to wait for some official word on the game’s sales.

Forspoken is currently available for PS5 and PC.

Source: Allison Rymer