According to Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer, Halo 4 is the most expensive project that Microsoft has undertaken.
Speaking with Polygon, Spencer said that nothing else even comes close to the amount of money the software giant spent on developing Halo 4. For the record, Halo 3 was estimated to cost about 60 million dollars to develop; thirty million of that was just the marketing budget. However, it easily made up that money in the first day—yes, I said “ day ”—of sales.
Halo has been one of the biggest shooter franchises of the last two generations. It still stands as a key competitor to Call of Duty and Battlefield, and it’s one of the only sci-fi multiplayer shooters that manages to top the charts. It’s understandable that Microsoft would put so many of their proverbial eggs into the Halo basket.