What with the GTA 4 trailer out, it’s interesting to remember one of the probable reasons the series has gone multiplatform: towering next-gen development costs. They're higher than ever before, standing at an estimated $20 million. By comparison the last generation of console games generally cost between $3 million and $6 million per title.

I’m not sure that games costing so much will be good for the PS3. On the one hand, we’ve all come to expect a certain amount of graphical pizzazz from our game titles, especially for a new console like the PS3. But such high development costs bring their own problems.

An unfortunate possible effect is that as titles are now more expensive, publishers are less willing to let developers take risky design decisions. Innovation in games is often uneconomical for the publisher: it takes a long time to get right, it’s not always easy to market and if it goes wrong, you stand to lose millions. It's far safer to stay with established, easily marketable concepts.

Multiplatform titles are also likely to become more and more common as developing houses look to recoup some of the massive costs involved in making a game. This we’ve seen in the recent slew of games for the PS3 to go multiplatform: Assassin’s Creed, and Devil May Cry 4 to name but a few.

Not only that, but $20 million is a lot of money and a price smaller games companies might not be willing to pay. It's unfortunately very possible that the costs are going to be enough to drive smaller developers towards the PC, Xbox360 and Wii. Only time will tell what the long term costs of development will be for the PS3.

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