We've heard Nintendo say that their consoles are the "developer's consoles" because of the friendly (read: low) development costs for new games. Microsoft and Sony have yet to make similar self praises. In fact, a recent move from a low-capital company brings to light a frightening potential for game development in the next generation.

Track7Games, who announced work on the multi-platform next-gen game Theseis a while ago, is now apparently abandoning operations on the PlayStation 3 version of the game because of excessively high development costs for the platform.
We know that superstar names like Square Enix and Sega have pledged heartily to developing for the PS3, but if development costs are so high that independent (or even mid-sized) third-party publishers literally cannot afford to create games for the $700 machine, it could be a huge upset for Sony.

It could essentially become the inverse of Nintendo's problems with the Gamecube, a platform that many third parties didn't support because it was not up to par with the Xbox and PS2.

This news also really highlights the story we talked about yesterday, when we found out that PS3 games may really dent your wallet. If development costs are so high that a company has to stop mid-production, then I've got to believe that that's an ever higher cost to pass on to consumers than has previously been rumored.

Via Joystiq

Report Published by: Mark Raby