RolStoppable said:
Degausser said:
RolStoppable said:
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ubisoft-well-have-quotnintendo-likequot-quality
“...It doesn’t cost more than 10 percent extra to develop for the other machine. So you start [development] on either 360 or you start on PS3.”
This has been said by other publishers as well, so it's pretty much fact. The reason why it only costs about 10 % to put the same game on another platform is because all the assets (models, textures, art etc.) already exist and all that's left to do is make the game run on the other platform. This only requires a fraction of the original manpower and less time, hence the much lower costs. It's not farfetched that this applies to other platforms as well, especially if no changes to the graphics have to be made to make the game run on another system.
Therefore your assumption that the costs of a port exceed the costs of the original game is ill-informed.
Games for the HD consoles don't cost more, because they run in higher resolution. They cost more, because the processing power of these systems allow developers to create much more detailed models and game worlds than before, even in 480p. Upping the resolution of a game doesn't make it more expensive, unless you use the increased resolution to display more detailed graphics. Which you don't, if you do a straight port of an already existing game.
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Porting from one game displayed in 720p to another in 720p is not a fair analogy to that of porting from a game displayed on a 480 x 272 pixel screen to a console displaying in 480i - the very reason handhelds are cheaper to develop for is because they're on smaller screens and once the port goes from the PSP - on a small screen - to the Wii - in 480i that cost goes up. At least thats my take on things.
Neither of us can find anything that conclusively agrees with either of our trains of thought but instead we're both using other referenced material to try and make our own conclusions, and taking them in different in directions. Unless we can find something that really explains these costs, or someone on here with actual developement experience can explain all, I don't think we're going to reach a conclusion here so it may just be best to leave it.
I have to ask - out of my own curiosity - if the resolution has no effect on costs, why do you think DS / PSP games on average ~10x cheaper to produce then Wii games, by all the estimates online? Afterall, the only real difference is one is being made on a small handheld screen and the other in 480i.
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Bold and underlined.
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EA CEO John Ricitiello said in January 2009: "Development is typically a third to a fourth as much for a Wii game then it is for a PS3 or an Xbox 360 game. That is really a function of the capacity of the hardware, and the fact that it is not a high-definition gaming box, so we're producing less art than for high-definition games."[6]
I am trying to find something that agrees with what you're saying - but form the little online stuff about this on it I've drawn a blank. Can you sort me a link or something, as at the moment everything you've underlined and bolded there feels like it was purely fabricated to suit your argument.
Still waiting on why those DS/PSP games are so much cheaper then Wii games too.
