Marvelous: 3DS game development will cost $600k-$1.8m
Harvest Moon dev speculates dramatic leap from DS dev costs
Figures released by Harvest Moon developer Marvelous Entertainment suggest that development costs for Nintendo 3DS games could approach those of current-generation home consoles.
Marvelous execs revealed in a post-financials Q&A that they expected the minimum spend for creating a 3DS title to be ¥70 million ($840,000) and the maximum ¥100 to 150 million ($1.2 to 1.8 million).
Japanese games site Hachimaki held this against development costs in 2009, finding that DS development required on average ¥4.4 million for low-cost titles and ¥44 million for 'normal' games ($53,000 to $528,000).
By contrast, Wii games cost ¥2.0 and 116 million ($24,000 and $1.4 million), while PS3 titles ¥6.3 and 250 million ($76,000 and 3 million). Again, these are averaged figures.