Of the 47 upcoming games for the 3DS listed by the gaming chain GameStop, only one of them costs $50. The new Mario Kart will cost $40. So will the next Sonic.
The next Resident Evil, February's Resident Evil: Revelations, won't be had for $40. It'll cost $50. The $10 price boost for this game isn't due to any bundling of the Circle Pad, the second-analog-"stick" add-on for the 3DS. It's not required for Revelations, even though it's been demoed with it. A spokesperson for the game told Kotaku Capcom doesn't even plan to bundle it with the game.
So why would Revelations, a game that is suposed to be a graphically-impressive throwback to classic scary Resident Evil games, cost $50?
"Resident Evil Revelations is an all new Resident Evil title with over 20 hours of gameplay, and cutscenes beautifully rendered in fear-inducing 3D," a Capcom spokesperson told me in an e-mailed statement. "A true console experience on a handheld device, Resident Evil Revelations is an epic title that offers both a single-player campaign for that classic survival horror gaming experience, and an additional RAID mode that can be played cooperatively or single player. To handle all of that data Resident Evil Revelations requires a 4GB cartridge, resulting in a higher price point."
You'll get a chance to decide if the game is worth that early next year. For context, most major Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games currently sell for $60. Top Wii titles usually start at $50.
You can contact Stephen Totilo, the author of this post, at stephentotilo@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.