The Blood of Dawnwalker reportedly cost around $40 million to make, according to a new Bloomberg report. Rebel Wolves director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz self-funded the first year in 2022 to build a prototype, and NetEase stepped in by the end of that year. The Chinese company took a 26% stake in the studio and supplied the $40 million budget.

Hiring took most of 2023, and full production started toward the end of that year, with Bandai Namco publishing the game. Apparently, the team originally planned to cap headcount at 90, but the studio has since grown to around 160 people. Rebel Wolves also seems to have picked a September release over June to avoid overtime, and it kept the game's foundations the same as its original pitch deck.

That puts the game in AA territory, close to the roughly $41 million reported for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. It looks like the figure covers development funding only, so it probably doesn't include marketing and publishing costs. Still, to make a game as well-received as The Blood of Dawnwalker on this budget is a great achievement.

The game sold over 1 million copies within days of launch, and Rebel Wolves has already started hiring for a sequel. It's safe to assume that plenty of larger publishers will be looking at that ratio.