‘Grand Theft Auto V’ Is The Most Expensive Video Game Ever

Grand Theft Auto V is the most expensive video game ever.

According to a report in The Scotsman, the upcoming installment in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto franchise was produced on a marketing and development budget of £170 million ($265 million), making it the most expensive video game production in history.

Compared to Hollywood films, GTA V comes in just below 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which currently holds the record for most expensive film production with a $300 million budget, even after adjusting for inflation.

GTA V spent five years in development, and game analysts are expecting it to be one of the most-sold games of this console generation. The game already has 2.5 million orders in the US alone, and is projected to move 25 million units in its first year.

Published by Edinburgh-based Rockstar North and distributed by Take-Two Interactive, Grand Theft Auto Vis the first main entry in the franchise since Grand Theft Auto IV was released in 2008. It is the 15 entry overall, dating back to the 1997 release of Grand Theft Auto for the original PlayStation.

“By any sort of commercial scale, Grand Theft Auto is easily Scotland’s largest cultural export ever. The series has sold something like 135 million copies so far,” said Brian ­Baglow, who worked as a writer on the first GTA and is now the head of the Scottish Games Network. “It’s coming up to 17 years since GTA began and it’s become something I don’t think anyone involved with the original game would have expected.”

Baglow added, “The series has come on not just in leaps and bounds, but in long jumps since then. It’s become far more than the sum of its parts, it’s a fully global phenomenon. This is the fifth major release, and the nice thing is that all of them have been made here in Scotland.”

Grand Theft Auto V is set to be released September 17 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.