Since the release of the Xbox 360 there is no such thing as a budget title. Every developer studio forks out thousands of dollars for just one gaming project. Which now makes video games a more acceptable source of entertainment along with movies and television. Not only has it given consumers something more to spend their money on but it also has given jobs to many computer/technology savvy youth. There is now more demand for jobs like game programming, developing, art design and game testing.

It may be hard for some to conceive why video games are such a multi-million dollar industry and how they rack up budgets sometimes more than movies. No longer are the days of one man made video games, unless you count the small mini-games on Popcap. The creation of a game is very complicated and requires many professions for a product to sell over a million copies. Game studios have to hire sound effects professionals in order to constitute realistic sound management. They have to hire testers that sit and play the games for hours looking for bugs or bad coding. Some studios go to such length as to hiring real actors to speak character’s voice parts just like in an animated movie. Not only that but on top of the game being made the publisher also hires publicist, managers, and advertisement firms in order for their « product » to get enough sales to constitute their hard work. But specifically there are a few games that stand out as the biggest budget games on the Xbox 360.

Halo is becoming a name almost as recognizable as the name Mario. The game holds a legacy for the best multi-player game since Goldeneye. The newest installment of the franchise delivers on every aspect that Halo fans wanted from the new game. It also sold millions of copies in its first week at 60.00 dollars each, because of its seemingly endless features and catering to its fans.

Gears of War maybe didn’t revolutionize any game play mechanics but it definitely revolutionized the way we see games today. The game was presented in the most realistic graphics that we have yet ever seen. Bringing the Unreal engine (the system the game was made with) to new heights and setting the game development bar very high.

Besides game budgets based around graphics and game features another big game came out spending thousands on its production values. Mass Effect is an RPG that allows any player to feel an interpersonal connections to the characters. The game allows you to talk and behave in whatever way you want, with every character being voice acted along the way. Truly worth the money in most gamers eyes.