1. Pricing is looking like $400 which is good for a console. Wii U isn't selling for reasons other than price: marketing, identity, competition, software quantity, industry approval. While a PS3 $500/$600 pricing is too much and the economy isn't as good as before, inflation has altered spending power and the market is more than willing to buy ~$500 mobile devices. As long as the value and perception is right the product will sell.
2. Dev costs were estimated to be only a 10% increase this gen, which is amazing because as you mentioned costs have exploded due to great graphics, voice acting, motion cap, etc. Apparently the majority of the costs are non graphic related and next gen is going to be easier to develop for so graphics cost aren't a huge deal anymore. That and it seems eliminating obstacles for developing games will make it cheaper, especially for smaller studios.
Before the PS3 everyone was nice to me :(
