According to an article on the Wall Street Journal (registration required), Activision Blizzard has spent a whopping $100 million developing their RTS sequel Starcraft 2.

The $100 million has so far been sunk into the development of the game and does not include any marketing activities. Blizzard is banking on the success of Starcraft 2 and the development resource that has been pumped into the new Battle.Net system. Blizzard are hoping that by offering an integrated Battle.Net across all their titles, gamers playing World of Warcraft will pick up a copy of Starcraft 2 which will help drive sales. Speaking to the paper, Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime added:

“We’ve brought in a lot of new players in the beta testing who’ve been playing World of Warcraft but have never tried Starcraft,”

With Starcraft 2 coming out in three parts, Wings of Liberty being the first on 27 July, they are likely to easily recoup their costs. With StarCraft being such a massive franchise in South Korea, Blizzard will be well on their way to making a success of the sequel and the sales will come flooding in.

This isn't that bad. It's $100 million for the ENTIRE franchise. So it's only around $33 million per game.