Marvelous Entertainment estimates software could cost between $600,000 and $1.8 million to produce.

Japan-based media company Marvelous Entertainment revealed its projected costs for developing 3DS games in a financial Q&A session last week.

In the transcription by the gaming site Hachimaki, translated by 1UP, the site compares the projected costs of ¥50 million ($600,000) to ¥150 million ($1.8 million), to production costs of games in 2009. Citing findings by organisers of the Tokyo Game Show for that year, Hachimaki says production costs of Nintendo DS games ranged from Y4.4 million ($53,000) to Y43.9 million ($527,000).

Marvelous’ projections place 3DS development costs in line with budgets for home console titles in 2009, where Wii games cost up to ¥116 million ($1.4 million) and 360/PS3 games cost up to ¥250 million ($3 million).   

Marvelous currently has two 3DS games in development, an entry in the Harvest Moon series and Animal Resort.