During the 8- and 16-bit days, it was fairly easy to produce games with really low-resolution graphics. But as time has gone on, it has become more and more expensive to make games as they are growing in both content and detail, and according to Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan, this is true for Playstation 5 as well.
In an interview with Games Industry, he said:
"I think, to the extent that the technology enables the graphics side of it to become more interesting and life-like, [the games] will become slightly more human-intensive and capital intensive to produce. So, yes, we think there probably will be an increase in development budgets.
We don't see it as being a massive increase, and that's why we want to do more faster than we have ever done before, to provide a fertile install base for people who make games to be able to monetise against.
If we can keep pace with a likely increase in development costs, then the industry can continue to prosper."
It's worth pointing out, that while Ryan is speaking about Playstation 5, it is likely also true for PC and Xbox Series X as well.