Both the 3DS and NGP have some significant muscle behind their new hardware, but that seems to be coming at a much higher cost for developers. A lot of studios are concerned over the changes they will have to make (some budgets tripling under new costs) in order to keep up to date with the new tech. Chris Kingsley, co-founder of Rebellion Studios has expressed concern that “with more power comes more expectation.”
“The biggest challenge will be development budgets. With more powerful machines to develop on, expectations are higher and you have to spend more time and money creating larger and more detailed worlds,” Kingsley said.
“It simply takes more time and effort to design towards all the devices’ handheld features.”echoed Griptonite Games’ JC Connors, “If you wanted to spend console money on developing an NGP or 3DS title, every penny of it would show, and clearly some of the launch titles have budgets two-to-three times what typical DS games have seen in the past.”
I am willing to pay full price for a quality handheld game. I’d do it for Dissidia or 3rd Birthday, and I’ll do it for other titles too. I see no problem with them charging slightly more for handheld titles if the titles are WORTH more.