Hidden cost – A realistic three-year run for a mid-scale original PC and console game in India can land around INR 17–18 Cr—because human payroll is only the beginning. Non-staff expenses like engine costs (after free thresholds), platform fees, marketing, sound and voice w
By the time a team finishes its first playable build, the real question isn’t whether the game is good. It’s whether the studio can afford to keep making it.
In a studio setup built for “serious original work,” the productive peak can be as small as 20 to 30 people. In this example. the calculation uses 30 people as the team size—on the smaller end for this kind of project. but still not unrealistic. The roles cover mid-level artists. programmers with console and experience. senior employees. a producer. a quality assurance team. and at least one person handling business and legal matters.
At INR 1.4L per person per month, 30 people cost INR 42L per month. Over a year, that becomes INR 5.04 Cr. A three-year development timeline—tight for an original IP but possible with discipline—pushes the staff bill to INR 15.12 Cr even before any rupee of revenue appears.
Then comes everything that doesn’t sit on the payroll.
Unreal Engine is described as free until a game earns $1M in lifetime revenue, which helps. But Unity Pro costs approximately INR 1.95L per year per developer beyond certain revenue thresholds. And for a PC and console game, the list of expenses doesn’t stop at tools.
Platform submission fees, marketing spend, sound design, voice acting, legal costs tied to IP registration, and pre-release localization all stack on top of the base staff burn. A conservative estimate for these non-staff costs over three years for a project of this scale is INR 2 to 3 Cr more.
Put together, the math lands on a total cost in the range of INR 17 to 18 Cr—about $1.77 to $1.87M—for a 30-person Indian studio building an original mid-scale PC and console game over three years.
That number is where the optimism meets the wall. For an Indian startup without publisher backing, it’s not just “expensive.” It becomes a threshold that few teams can clear comfortably.
And it’s where the wider investment picture starts to matter. The calculation frames it as a large ask for a category that, by most Indian venture capital standards, most investors still do not fully understand.
Even if the studio stays lean, the cost curve doesn’t bend easily. Staff costs build first—INR 15.12 Cr over three years—then non-staff costs add another INR 2 to 3 Cr. By the time a game is ready to ship. the studio is still carrying years of spend with no guaranteed return. which is the entire reason a pitch can sound doable in a meeting and feel brutal in execution.
India game development costs Unreal Engine free until $1M Unity Pro cost INR 1.95L IP registration legal costs pre-release localization voice acting marketing spend platform submission fees mid-scale PC and console game budget INR 17 to 18 Cr