I'd say M2 research is way off the mark for the estimate of cost for a mobile title. Let's take the $5K cost and break it down. A competent young programmer,

I'd say M2 research is way off the mark for the estimate of cost for a mobile title. Let's take the $5K cost and break it down. A competent young programmer, making $80K/year, would be paid $5K in 3.3 weeks. However, games don't just need programmers, they also require art, so let's take $1K to pay for the artist's time. That leaves us with only 2.6 weeks of the programmer's time. Let's also say that we have a game designer who we pay $1K. That leaves us with only 2 weeks of the programmer's time. Having been a professional mobile game developer for 7 years, I've never seen a game take only 3 people and only 2 weeks. The minimum, in my experience, is about 2 months and around 5 people, or roughly $60K, for a very simplistic game. I'd even venture to say that it is impossible to create a quality finished product in 2 weeks.