Nintendo News | Cheap Revolution Development Kits

The key to getting many developers on-board a new system is to ensure that they will not have too much risk when producing games for it, especially in the cut-throat new generation where fears of development costs spiralling out of control are indeed becoming a reality. The GBA is ultra-cheap to develop for, thus there are all sorts of games being developed for it, and not just by large companies as it is clearly in reach of smaller, independent teams.



Now it has been revealed that Nintendo is set to follow the same route with its forthcoming Revolution hardware kits. According to reports across the Internet, a development kit will set companies back just $2,000.



Whilst this will seem a lot to the layman, it is actually cheaper than the kit required for developing Sony PSP games, and far cheaper than the XBOX 360 ones, as well as, presumably, the PlayStation 3. IGN's Revolution channel in fact states that the Revolution's latest build will cost developers thousands of dollars less than the PSP kit!



Currently there have been three differing kits sent out, but the newest version (the 90-95%final build) due to head out to major players such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, both of whom will show games in playable form at this year's E3 in May. Others will have to wait until June for the same development kit as Nintendo's priority is set on showing playable content at the large US event to rouse more interest in the system.



Reports from around the globe are consistent in that whilst probably only twice the power of the GameCube, the innovative system more than makes up for the lack of extra horsepower.



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