...at least according to a CESA Japan report on development budgets for the various consoles. XBOX development takes the cake...

The latest Famitsu features the latest report released by Japan's Computer Entertainment Supplier Association (CESA) on the 2004 average development budgets for the various consoles and handhelds. In something of a surprise, the XBOX led all platforms with an average budget supposedly more than double that for the Gamecube and PS2. Well, the surprise is not so much that the XBOX was the most expensive, but by exactly how much. CESA attributed the substantial increase to the XBOX's unoptimized, more powerful hardware. The figure indeed may be but a precursor to game development costs on the next generation platforms.

In perhaps another surprise, CESA's figures pegged PSP development (based on 6 PSP games) as roughly equal to that of the Gamecube (not to mention the PS2.) Although it has been said before that the high-end graphics output by the PSP would naturally result in higher development costs, this has been the first report that reflected that belief so explicitly.

As for the DS...CESA had another surprise. DS development (although the figure was based on only 3 titles) actually came in below the average budget for a GBA game (whose nearly $500k figure was in itself a bit of an eyebrow-raiser.) This is a bit odd and likely counter to what most folks would be inclined to believe...nevertheless, the DS (as an extension of sorts to the GBA hardware) clearly retains its little brother's developer cost-friendly status.

Below is a table of the actual figures: