Video game development costs

That's a very good question. Video game budgets are not as public an affair as movie budgets are, for example.
Wikipedia lists the following very expensive games. They quote GTA4 as the most expensive game to date, but one has to wonder whether World of Warcraft has been considered in that estimation. MMOs also produce ongoing costs rather than one-time development costs:
- GTA IV ($100 million)
- Shenmue ($70 million)

The following thread quotes an estimate on the development costs for console games in 2001, as well as figures for the final fantasy series. [http://forum.beyond3d.com/archive/index.php/t-2832.html]

PlayStation 2 1 million
Nintendo 64 510.000
Dreamcast 400.000
Wonder Swan 400.000
Game Boy Advance 350.000
PSone 170.000
Game Boy 34.000

FFVII : 26 million
FFVIII : 30 million
FFIX : 38 million
FFX : 40 million
FFXI : 12 million

[http://play.tm/story/3217]

HalfLife 2: 40 million

Of course, development costs for independent/flash/shareware/open-source games can be much less. These are production costs for "blockbuster" games.