With this money it was possible to make several AAA games.
The free-to-play game Monopoly Go, released in 2023, turned out to be a major commercial hit. In 2023, the game earned $1 billion; now the project's revenue exceeds $2 billion.
In an interview with Steven Totilo, Scopely's vice president of publishing, Eric Wood, admits that the investment in advertising for the game was also very significant. About $500 million was spent on promoting Monopoly Go.
As Totilo notes, this money would be enough to develop several AAA games. For example, for $500 million you can make Horizon Forbidden West and The Last of Us 2 (game budgets are known) – and you still have about $68 million left.
Scopely explains these costs by creating separate advertising campaigns for all regions where Monopoly Go is available. The company believes that the costs were justified.
The Monopoly Go developers believe that it was the very significant advertising costs that helped the game become the highest-grossing mobile release of 2023 and very quickly recoup development costs. The budget for Monopoly Go has not been disclosed.
This is interesting