What was the budget for Panzer Dragoon Saga?

Panzer Dragoon
1

I tried looking for an answer before, but I couldn’t find it. The game looks really impressive for '98 so sega had to have put a couple million into it right? Thanks.

2 Likes
2

I recall reading that Panzer Dragoon Saga was the most expensive game at Sega before Shenmue. Perhaps someone can dig up a link with the details?

3

I’m not convinced a solid number has ever been released, just comparisons with other projects. I could be wrong there though, I can’t see any direct figures discussed.

https://discuss.panzerdragoonlegacy.com/t/how-much-did-panzer-dragoon-saga-cost-to-make/

Shenmue cost something like $70 million so we know it’s under that. We also know PDS was designed to take on FFVII which had a rough $40-50 million development cost I’ve read.

I’m not sure what a reasonable guess would be given the above, probably in the region of $20-50 million if I were to put a finger in the air.

4

Yukio Futatsugi said in Retrogamer that Saga budget and team size lead to the way for games like Shenmue, but never gave an actual figure.

No doubt it was huge since every Panzer Dragoon game was a lavished production. I mean there were stories going around the press than Panzer Dragoon (the 1st game) wasn’t just the most expensive game in SEGA history (at that time) but also the most expensive console game ever made too

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I would imagine that the budget had to be around 13 million.

6

The budget was supposedly around 45 million dollars. More expensive than final fantasy 7.

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That sounds more like Shenmue than Panzer Dragoon Saga, just ~5m over wouldn’t be a big deal then…

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Shenmue was 70 million. Considerably more.

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$70 Million was for 2 Shenmue games and what SEGA spent on PR. The Saga team size wasn’t anywhere near that of Shenmue staff (over 200 staff) and its development cycle was around 3 years,

Shenmue would have cost a lot more. I would imagine Saga budget would be in $20 million dollars range