Starcraft II Costs $100 Million
According to the Wall Street Journal, Activision Blizzard have spent over $100 million on the development of Starcraft II. That's a lot of overlords.
If you have a subscription to the WSJ, you can read the story here. Otherwise, there isn't that much more to it - Activision Blizzard is heavily invested in Starcraft, and they think it will repay its cost many times over.
Other $100 million games include major Rockstar Games entries, like Red Dead Redemption. Before I wrote that, I was having trouble imagining what could cost so much to develop in Starcraft II, after all, it really looks like the original Starcraft. How hard could that have been to do? Furthermore, Blizzard games are always meant to be played on lowest common denominator systems, so it's not like they push crazy graphical boundaries.
And yet, we're sure that Starcraft II, like Red Dead Redemption, will overflow with cinematic scenes throughout the course of its campaign mode - and cinematics are always pricey. Whether or not they'll look like $100 million will be revealed when Starcraft II lands on July 27.
Oh, and the mocap for the single player campaign's cutscenes probably cost a lot. As well as hiring Tricia Helfer (and other expensive actors?) to do the voice work. It adds up.