Bandai claim next generation development costs will skyrocket

Speaking to Bloomberg at the Tokyo Games Show, managing director of Bandai, Shin Onozawa, said that development costs for next generation consoles will soar way above the costs on current generation software titles.

According to Onozawa, the investment needed to develop a title on Xbox 360 and PS3 could skyrocket to 1 billion Yen (7.3 million Euro). A figure drastically higher than the current development costs, which range between 100 million Yen (738,000 Euro) to 500 million Yen (3.6 million Euro).

Figures supplied voluntarily by publishers for a recent report by The Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) appear contrary to Onozawa's statement however, with average development costs across most systems substantially below his lowest figure of 100 million Yen.

Only the 13 Xbox titles in the survey revealed an average cost of 202 million Yen (1.5 million Euro), whilst PS2 and GameCube developments costs trailed behind at an average of 96 million Yen (708,000 Euro) and 90 million Yen (660,000 Euro) respectively.

Onozawa claimed that Bandai's forthcoming merger with Namco should cut the development costs by around 20 percent, though he gave no indication as to when this might happen. Speaking to Bloomberg, Onozawa stated: "Costs will begin to fall a year or so after the consoles are released and game makers get used to the systems."

Consumers are expected to see an increase of approximately USD 10 (8 Euro) on the cost of software when the Xbox 360 is launched at the end of the year.