3DS dev costs triple that of DS
And double that of the PSP.
Developers looking to take a slice of the 3DS pie are going to have to open their chequebooks – Nintendo's new handheld is not going to be cheap to make games for.
Japanese blog Hachimaki revealed, as reported by 1Up, that Harvest Moon developer Marvelous Entertainment told investors to expect an outlay of between ¥50 million and ¥150 million per 3DS title. That equates to around £375,000 to £1.1 million.
That's a sizeable leap up from DS costs. Nintendo's current handheld is relatively cheap to develop for. Last year Geimin reported that Japanese studios spend between ¥4.4 million and ¥43.9 million on a DS title. That's £33,000 to £330,000 on UK shores.
In comparison, PSP titles can soak up as much as £440,000.
These are ball park figures of course, but serve as a pretty good indicator that 3DS games are going to retail for more than your average DS title.
Find out for sure when Nintendo's new handheld launches in March next year. The machine itself will sell for ¥25,000 (around £190) in Japan. No UK or US price has been announced yet.