With Nintendo officially unveiling the 3DS, time was taken to point out the graphical improvements made over the previous handheld model. Iwata stated that the higher power output would mean higher development costs in an E3 Q&A panel.
"Because the visual capabilities of Nintendo 3DS are more powerful than the existing Nintendo DS, if you are going to take full advantage of the graphics capability of Nintendo 3DS, the development cost is … expected to rise. Therefore, if developers decide to try and maximize the graphical powers of the system, then the cost would be more expensive than what it is currently for Nintendo DS and may potentially approach the cost of developing Wii software," he stated during the analyst Q&A session.
Nintendo Wii development costs are markedly lower than those of major titles for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. With costs at upwards of $30 million per title for high-definition consoles, the Wii only sees costs at around a third or forth of that amount. Handheld titles represent even less cost to develop.
As Nintendo has been called the “Handheld King,” developers have been flocking to work with the new technology. Development giants are showcasing some of the best-known franchises for release on the new 3DS.
The actual 3D effect, however, is not what leads to greater costs. "From a development perspective, it actually does not make much of a difference in terms of development costs to create the 3D visual effect," Iwata said.
Even with the negligible cost of 3D compatibility for a title, new games announced for the 3DS such as Resident Evil: Revelations, Starfox 64 3D and Zelda: The Ocarina of Time 3D represent greater technical capability. As costs continue to rise for handheld development, Iwata does add that not every developer needs to put forth a substantial investment for every game.
However, he added that, "On the other hand, I believe there will be developers who will use a similar amount of resources to create games as if developing for a home console, and such games also would result in satisfaction to our consumers."
