# *The Last of Us Part II* Cost a Cool $200 Million to Develop [Sony’s confidential PlayStation secrets just spilled because of a Sharpie](https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/28/23777298/sony-ftc-microsoft-confidential-documents-marker-pen-scanner-oops) by Tom Warren and Sean Hollister for The Verge > It looks like someone redacted the documents with a black Sharpie — but when you scan them in, it’s easy to see some of the redactions. Oops. ![[TLOUPII-Cost-and-Team-Size.jpeg]] I modified the image slightly, so I could read the text better. Someone is in big trouble over in Sony’s legal department. While the development time for The Last of Us Part II wasn’t a surprise, the cost to make it was. Now, $200 million also isn’t a surprise; massive AAA first-party exclusives fall in this range. Just look at Horizon Forbidden West in the previous sentence above. For context though, *The Last of Us Part II* [[The Last of Us Part II sells more than 4 million copies – PlayStation.Blog|sold 4 million copies in three days]]. If all of those were just the base game at $59.99, Sony recouped the development cost and then some at $239,960,000. In 2022, the game reached [10 million copies sold](https://blog.playstation.com/2022/06/09/the-growing-future-of-the-last-of-us/), although the profit made is unknown due to discounted sales throughout that time. The entire series (four games) has sold [[The Last of Us Surpasses 37 Million in Sales|37 million copies]]. I think the $200 million investment for *Part II* has paid off. I wager the investment in *[[History is Repeating Itself|The Last of Us Part III]]* will pay off even more so; not sure if the [[The Last of Us Factions Multiplayer Game Delayed|multiplayer game]] will see the light of day though.