It's going to cost a pretty penny to get Marvel's Blade out the door, according to recent reports. According to French government documents shared by Twitter user bogorad22, Marvel's Blade has a budget of around $109 million, raising questions about its scale and ambition, especially as audiences grapple with the disappointing news of its late development start.
For context, 2018's Marvel's Spider-Man cost about $100 to produce, while Marvel's Spider-Man 2's budget infamously ballooned to over $300 million.
As many clued into the games industry are already aware, AAA titles are far from cheap. It's gotten to the point where many have questioned the sustainability of the AAA model, as companies are taking greater financial risks in the hopes of earth-shattering returns. Perhaps this is a response to the game industry's rampant growth during the COVID pandemic, which some publishers and developers may have assumed to be the new status quo for the industry year-over-year. That's obviously not been the case, but if games like Marvel's Blade continue to boast nine-figure budgets, it's only natural to wonder where exactly that money is going.
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Marvel's Blade Could Be More Ambitious Than First Assumed
Blade has always been an interesting part of Marvel's mainstream entertainment tapestry: he is seemingly beloved by many, with the Wesley Snipes films of the 90s and 2000s holding a special place in fans' hearts, but he's also a bit hard done by. The Blade film is reportedly stuck in development hell, for instance, and he's been virtually absent from the MCU altogether thus far.
So, while it may make sense to spend hundreds of millions on a game based on a character like Spider-Man, the decidedly less-popular Blade would be a tougher sell, one would imagine.
Unless the Blade game is destined for greater things, that is. Perhaps Arkane Lyon is planning to set Marvel's Blade in a huge, open-world Paris—something that wouldn't come cheap, that's for sure. Or perhaps Arkane is securing premium voice talent for some of its characters, scooping up big-name actors with big-name price tags.
It's hard to say, but it's safe to assume that Arkane Lyon and its parent company, ZeniMax Media, wouldn't feel comfortable shelling out so much cash on a B-list Marvel character unless there was a significant reason for doing so. Whatever the specifics, players will have to hope that Marvel's Blade makes the most of its alleged $109-million budget, lest it become another financial disaster for Arkane.
Hopefully, Blade Will Use Its Considerable Budget Wisely
A hefty budget can be a boon for any developer, but it can also come with a cost of its own. Whoever foots the $100-million bill is going to want a sizable return on their investment, but not every game manages to generate that much revenue, let alone two or three times that amount. A game has to be something truly special to make that sort of return, so if Marvel's Blade is just another open-world superhero game, that probably won't cut it.
Of course, Arkane Lyon would probably claim that Marvel's Blade is worth every penny of that $100-million budget, but that's its job; only time and gaming audiences at large will determine if Marvel's Blade truly made good use of its considerable resources. It's also worth noting that the past few years have been unkind to Arkane Studios: Redfall flopped, and Microsoft shut down Arkane Austin just last year as a result.
- Developer(s)
- Arkane Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda Softworks
- Engine
- Void Engine
- Franchise
- Marvel
Marvel's Blade is in development at Arkane Lyon, which developed Deathloop and Dishonored. It is a mature single-player third-person adventure game set in Paris, where players take on the role of the titular and beloved comic book hero.
