I'm assuming that this article is catered towards ppl intending to be game developers, or ppl wanting to make a game by hiring a bunch of developers.
if you count in man-hours, then yes it's into the 100ks.
going from the single indie developer perspective,
assume you pay yourself $100/hour
game takes 4 months to develop
total cost is 100$ * 120 days * 10 hours/day = 120,000 $
the cost for game assets have not even been included!
but no indie developer I know take these costs into account. Who actually cares about sweat dollars? If two-three people sit in room, code+draw for 4 months straight taking ramen noodles, launch and make millions off the game on iOS, they're not going to tell you "We spent $120k of our own money+time". Instead they'll say "We spent 4 months furiously making the game, living off ramen noodles in mom's basement"
in summary, the development cost could be either be close to zero, or $100k.
if you're hiring a team, yes prepare to splash $100k, but if you go indie, get some good game dev friends, and absorb all costs!
Remember, making millions is not guaranteed at the end of the journey. Even if you put in the right amount of polish and you've got a great game, there's still no guarantee that you'll be a hit.
Well said Ben. Of course if you try to assemble a team things will get expensive quickly, that's the same as any startup really.
Where game development really shines is when, as you said, you get just a couple chaps together working to make something really fun, and not caring too much of the money (up-front.)
All that said, game development and startups are from two different worlds, and they're only crossing paths a little nowadays because of companies like Zynga and Rovio making big bucks right alongside other Facebook and mobile apps. Otherwise angel investors probably wouldn't care a lick about gaming.
if you count in man-hours, then yes it's into the 100ks.
going from the single indie developer perspective,
assume you pay yourself $100/hour game takes 4 months to develop total cost is 100$ * 120 days * 10 hours/day = 120,000 $
the cost for game assets have not even been included!
but no indie developer I know take these costs into account. Who actually cares about sweat dollars? If two-three people sit in room, code+draw for 4 months straight taking ramen noodles, launch and make millions off the game on iOS, they're not going to tell you "We spent $120k of our own money+time". Instead they'll say "We spent 4 months furiously making the game, living off ramen noodles in mom's basement"
in summary, the development cost could be either be close to zero, or $100k.
if you're hiring a team, yes prepare to splash $100k, but if you go indie, get some good game dev friends, and absorb all costs!