14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese games publisher Marvelous Entertainment, the company behind franchises like Harvest Moon, has just revealed in an investor's call that the development costs for the future Nintendo 3DS handheld device will be much higher than for the regular DS.
According to the Japanese company, the cost to make a game for the 3DS will start from $840,000 and might even go as high as $1.8 million, depending on the quality desired and the problems encountered throughout its creation process.
Marvelous then referred to development costs for DS games from last year, saying that they ranged from $53,000, for small budget titles, and reached $527,000, for regular DS games.
The company then issued a few numbers about development on the current generation home consoles, including the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
For the Wii, the company invested from $24,000 to $1.4 million, while PS3 development cost the company from $75,000 to $3 million, and the cost of making a game for the Xbox 360 usually ranged from $36,000 to $2.5 million.
The company does indicate that development costs are usually higher at the beginning of a platform's lifecycle, but as time goes by and developers start getting accustomed to the device, the creation process becomes much cheaper.
Nintendo praised its upcoming 3DS because it will allow more companies to start making better games, and won't limit developers with weak hardware or confusing requirements.
Even if it will cost more to bring games to the 3DS, lots of developers and publishers have already pledged their support and announced titles for the upcoming platform.
Among them we have EA, Konami, Capcom and lots of other companies, which all say that their 3DS games will amaze through quality and mechanics.
The Nintendo 3DS is set to appear this February in Japan, and will then be launched all around the world in March.