The budgets for The Last of Us 2 and Horizon Forbidden West were accidentally revealed in a poorly edited document

Both The Last of Us: Part II and Horizon Forbidden West cost more than $200 million to develop based on new documents filed as part of the Federal Trade Commission’s Xbox case.

According to a poorly redacted announcement submitted by Sony Interactive Entertainment, The Last of Us: Part 2 cost about $220 million to develop, with a peak staff of around 200 full-time employees. Meanwhile, Horizon Forbidden West cost $212 million to develop and employs more than 300 developers.

Budgets offer a rare glimpse into the world of big-budget game development, where exact numbers are often treated as closely guarded secrets, as well as the sheer scale of AAA game development. Recently, Matt Botti, head of Xbox Game Studios, said that big-budget games are now taking half a decade or more, with failure potentially destroying the studio.

In this case, the budgets seem to have been worth it. Both games sold well and were an important part of the PlayStation’s brand as a “prestige” platform.

PlayStation justifies these costs by noting the way AAA games “create deep, continuous interaction with players”.

“Comparing the connection with an AAA game to the interaction with a big-budget Hollywood movie is useful for understanding player loyalty to game franchises,” the document says. “While most viewers of a movie will watch it once, players of a successful AAA multiplayer game will play it constantly; while a movie might last two hours, players of a successful AAA multiplayer game may play it for hundreds of hours a year.”

The document goes on to highlight Call of Duty as a “critical” component of PlayStation’s competitiveness, and to describe its annual release cycle as unique among AAA games. It claims that Call of Duty is being played by “tens of millions” of users on PlayStation alone.

Budgets are one of the revelations that have revealed all kinds of information about Xbox acquisition attempts throughout the year, release dates, and more. The trial, which began last week, will determine whether a preliminary injunction was issued against Activision Blizzard’s Xbox merger.

IGN is in the courtroom and covering everything as it happens, so keep an eye on the site while the trial continues.

Kat Bailey is IGN News Director and co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Do you have advice? Send her a direct message at the_katbot.