History Main / NewTechIsNotCheap

* ''VideoGame/Dishonored2'' invokes this trope with regard to Kirin Jindosh's clockwork soldiers. The soldiers are revolutionary, but they're an in-universe ObviousBeta, and making one costs the kind of money most men won't see in a lifetime. Jindosh spends a lot of time trying to find a way to produce them more cheaply, and goes to the extent of [[spoiler: having Sokolov kidnapped and imprisoned so he could try to force him to help. In the end, Emily/Corvo deals with him before he can find a solution, and once he's dealt with the solution doesn't matter any more.]]

* In ''Film/{{Contact}}'', a terrorist attack destroys the first device. There are plans, but building the device was so expensive for the entire world that the prospect of building a second one (especially since it would invite yet another attack) is summarily dismissed. It is then that a second, backup device is revealed to have been built in secret. It is explained with the CrowningMomentOfAwesome line:

* Astronomical amounts of money [[KaijuDefenceForce JSDF]] has sunk into the military {{cyborg}}s research and development during the WWIV shortly prior to Anime/GhostInTheShellArise, is one of the main reasons it is in such a [[PerpetualPoverty dire financial straits]] in the show.

** This is part of the reason why [[SuperSoldier Spartans]] weren't able to be mass-produced until after the war; their MJOLNIR PoweredArmor was notoriously expensive to produce.

* In some canons, one of ''{{Spider-Man}}'''s major plot is budget on the expensive chemicals for his web shooters.

* In ''[[{{Spider-Man}} Spider-Man 2]]'', when Doctor Octopus' tentacles convince him to try to build his fusion generator again, he specifically mentions needing to be able to fund it, which results in him robbing the bank where he has his first fight with Spider-Man.

* ''{{Narbonic}}'' features an extended time-travel subplot which establishes that it is difficult, but not impossible, to change your own history. Physical time-travel takes all the energy that exists in the Universe [[spoiler: or, as it turns out, in some other universe that's just out of luck.]]

* Inverted in [[http://www.melonpool.com/?p=2051 this]] MelonPool strip. It's because of the OLD technology (engine) that required expensive fuel.

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* WesternAnimation/DespicableMe: A huge part of the plot involved getting loans and necessary capital in order to create the evil inventions for the evil plots. They had their own Villain Bank.

* ''GeniusTheTransgression'' goes a little overboard in insisting that Geniuses be able to account for ''how'', exactly, they pay for those wonderful toys. It stops short of having the Storyteller request an itemized budget from the players, but only just.

** The Odin, the Dominion's ultimate assault mech, is capable of ravaging multiple bases with barely any maintenance, but is so expensive and outright huge (even the biggest cargo ship in the game can't fit it) there's only one ever built in the entire series. Fortunately, Swann reverse engineers it and comes up with a mass-production version which cuts back certain elements like the size, the minibar and toilet in the cockpit, and the nuclear missile launcher.

* WesternAnimation/DespicableMe: A huge part of the plot involved getting loans and necessary capitol in order to create the evil inventions for the evil plots. They had their own Villain Bank.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' universe, the [[FrickinLaserBeams Spartan Laser]] costs as much as A 400,000 TON WARSHIP.

* In one of DoctorSteel's songs, "Build the Robots", Dr. Steel laments about building a high-tech giant robot army:

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* Astronomical amounts of money [[KaijuDefenceForce JSDF]] has sunk into the military {{cyborg}}s research and development during the WWIV shortly prior to Anime/GhostInTheShellArise, is one of the main reasons it is in such a [[PerpetualPoverty dire financial straits]] in the show.

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* ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' has prototyping, where the first unit of a new design has an added initial cost before you can even produce any. This cost is ignored by the Spartans and at bases with a Skunkworks.

* ''SwordOfTheStars II'' also introduces prototyping. You can't start mass-producing new ship designs until you build the prototype. Prototypes are subject to the RandomNumberGod. Certain qualities (firepower, armor, energy production, etc.) can be slightly better or worse than the mass-produced sister ships, which is why the designers saw fit to give prototypes nicknames reflecting their qualities.

New technology is not cheap. There is a lot of associated costs to new technology. That is often used in stories as excuse not to just blow up rampaging technology, or to make an item more important [[MacGuffin as a setup to get it destroyed or rescued]]. This approach also allows some characters or factions to have some items better than others without making plot holes or contrived limitations like [[SuperPrototype Super Prototypes]]. It helps explain why stories don't simply have a whole lot of certain tech items -- e.g. why are there only a few flying suits assigned to an elite team (or even a few members of a team) instead of the army as a whole? Not enough resources. Which art-wise makes a justification for the greater variety of used designs. And if the author ever decides to change designs, raise the stakes or avoid going too far with TheWorfEffect or RedshirtArmy, the mass upgrade "at last" improves the {{continuity}} instead of taxing it.

* Research costs (including further refinement)
* Specialized engineering (e.g. production can only be carried out at certain facilities or locations)
* Specialized materials (e.g. hard to find raw materials or refinement methods that take a long time)
* Power source requirements (e.g. AppliedPhelbotium)

New technology is not cheap. There is a lot of associated costs to new technology. That is often used in stories as excuse not to just blow up rampaging technology, or to make an item more important [[MacGuffin as a setup to get it destroyed or rescued]]. This approach also allows to have some items better than others without making plot holes or contrived limitations like SuperPrototype. Why not to simply have a whole lot of certain tech item -- like just few flying suits rather than everyone in certain group having them? Not enough resources. Which art-wise makes a justification for the greater variety of used designs. And if the author ever decides to change designs, raise the stakes or avoid going too far with TheWorfEffect or RedshirtArmy, the mass upgrade "at last" improves the {{continuity}} instead of taxing it.

Here's partial possible reasons list for expense:
* Research costs
* Specialized engineering
* Specialized materials
* Power source requirements

* Many one-shot or limited production suits from the various ''MobileSuitGundam'' series are prototypes that were just too expensive or complex to mass produce. In fact, most series star a unique SuperPrototype. Others were created for [[AllThereInTheManual Mobile Suit Variations]] series to demonstrate how technology advanced behind the scenes.

* In the ''{{Halo}}'' universe, the [[FrickinLaserBeams Spartan Laser]] costs as much as A 400,000 TON WARSHIP.

* Many one-shot or limited production suits from the various ''MobileSuitGundam'' series are prototypes that were just too expensive or complex to mass produce.
** The Zeta line is particularly infamous, producing the Delta Gundam, Gundam Delta Kai, Hyaku Shiki and more in its attempts to create a beam-coated, transforming suit.
** Every mech from ''Gundam0083StardustMemory'' is pretty much a one-shot as well

* ''Stars!'' makes each item cheaper by 4% per TechLevel prerequisite (if it has any) exceeded in all appliable fields, until its resource cost drops to 24%. "[[http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Bleeding_Edge_Technology Bleeding Edge Technology]]" trait, doubles the cost of new technologies until Tech Levels are exceeded, but improves by 5%/level with 20% bottom. This sucks on highest-level items, however, since there's no room left for improvement and you're just stuck with double cost until the end.

* DespicableMe: A huge part of the plot involved getting loans and necessary capitol in order to create the evil inventions for the evil plots. They had their own Villain Bank.

* In ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion 2'' "[[http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Master_of_Orion_II/Warship_technologies#Miniaturization miniaturization]]" lowers both cost and size of devices, and on top of TechTree empty levels are left to allow extra miniaturization of previous levels (and score points).