Those 3D effects... my heart! This is the big one! You hear that Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you honey!

With the 3DS generating as much hype as it is, it's no surprise that its software may cost as much as your average Wii release. You get what you pay for, and this handheld could hardly be classified in the same ballpark as the Game Boys of yesteryear. No, friends; the 3Ds is nothing less than a Game Man. Or woman.

Gender confusion aside, here's what Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata had to say about it:

As long as you are already creating a fully rendered 3D world, all you have to do in order to create the 3D visual effect is to capture the same images with two cameras, one for right eye and the other for left eye. From a development perspective, it actually does not make much of a difference in terms of development costs to create the 3D visual effect.

On the other hand, because the visual capabilities of Nintendo 3DS are more powerful than the existing Nintendo DS, if you are going to take full advantage of the graphics capability of Nintendo 3DS, the development cost is also expected to rise.

Therefore, if developers decide to try and maximize the graphical powers of the system, then the cost would be more expensive than what it is currently for Nintendo DS and may potentially approach the cost of developing Wii software.

He says a lot of other stuff too, so be sure to check out the full interview. Whether or not this will impact the prices of games at retail only time will tell, but if development costs are to rise it's not impossible that retail prices will have to increase too.

[source nintendo.co.jp]