Fafalada said:
Is there any credible source of "massive increase" in costs relative to PS2 entries?
No. Honestly, from what sketchy info we have, FF seems like (currently) one of the
least expensive generational transitions -- the games already spent $40 million budgets on so much art, CGI, and development that it doesn't really seem likely that FFXIII costs drastically more.
The thing to do, I think, is check the credits when the game's out. I'm guessing we'll see a very similar staff size, and we already know we're looking at a similar development time to FFXII.
Bebpo said:
No, I think you are right. I think for the most part, a few loudmouth studios made statements about how OMG HD GAMES ARE SO EXPENSIVE and it got carried around without much proof. I bet most HD games generally cost about as much as last gen SD entries + inflation.
That's taking it too far, though.
There are two kinds of HD games that, I imagine, fit this category. One is games that already cost so much and had such high staffing and development requirements that simply upgrading to HD assets is a drop in the bucket. (I'm not sure what, if anything, qualifies besides, like, Halo and FF, but I might be missing something.) The other is the category is stuff that avoids the big price hike by either using visually unimpressive assets, visual tricks, or both to go HD without increasing the asset budget. (Vesperia, Valkyria, and Disgaea 3 are all good examples off the top of my head.)
But most of the stuff in the middle really is seeing a big cost increase, which is easy to see just by comparing staffing numbers and development cycle lengths. The biggest offenders are going to be games with realistic art styles (necessitating a drastic increase in quantity, not just quality, of art assets), open worlds, and/or "cinematic" qualities. MGS4 cost
way more to make than MGS3. GTA4 cost
way more to make than GTA:SA. And so on.
I do think you're broadly correct about Japanese games, though, just since so many Japanese games this gen (MGS4 and FF13 being notable exceptions) haven't applied the same level of graphical upgrade that Western games have.