GTA IV: Most expensive game ever made?

Leslie Benzies, producer of Grand Theft Auto IV, has estimated the game cost Rockstar around USD 100 million to create.

Speaking to The Times Online Benzies said more than 1000 people worked on the game during its three-and-a-half year development. He said he didn't know the final cost of development for sure, but put his guess at USD 100 million.

That would make GTA IV the most expensive game ever made. Previously the record has been held by Dreamcast title Shenmue, which cost SEGA more than USD 70 million.

Will Rockstar make its money back? Well, the game sold more than 600,000 copies in the UK alone on the first day of release, and analysts reckon it could make over USD 400 million in its first week.

Benzies went on to discuss the criticism GTA IV has faced in the mainstream media. "You kill prostitutes. That's usually the objection," he said.

"There is a big fear factor here. It's the coming of the railways. It's Elvis shaking his hips. It's cars going over 25 miles an hour and making people explode.

"We've had such a beating over the past three years. If I get into a confrontation about it, once I've had my beating, I ask if they've ever played the game," he continued. "Invariably they haven't."

GTA IV this isn't the first Rockstar game to have stirred up controversy, of course. Commenting on the row over Manhunt Benzies said, "We wanted to make a horror game that would scare you in the same way a film would.

"If it's a film or a book, you can do what you want. We seem to be in a different category."