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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why do third parties use Wii success to fund PS3/360 bombs?

Time and time again, the same story from third parties:

Develop a Wii game with much poorer graphics than it can handle, with no depth, a party atmosphere and broken Wii Remote controls. Rake in the cash due to Wii's very large and casual userbase that wants priamrily simple fun. Immediately develop massive-budget sequel to well known franchise using the money, exclusive to the PS3 and/or Xbox 360. Game bombs due to small but with high standards userbase of said platforms, combined with a break-even point of 1 million copies. Company loses money, but, hey, it can be saved by a poor quality Wii game! Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Some of those exclusive games even make a small profit: Assasins Creed, for example. However, one "big" game in five makes it; AC could just as easily have flopped as badly as Heavenly Sword, Lair or Unreal Tournament 3.

Remember, "bombing" in the case of MGS4 could be a mere 800,000 copies on day one.

For example (these are the best developers; most just release X360 or PS3 games):

Ubisoft: RRR, Red Steel -> Assasins Creed

Capcom: Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition -> Resident Evil 5, Lost Planet

Konami: Elebits -> Metal Gear Solid 4, Silent Hill

EA: Boogie, EA Playground -> Burnout Paradise, Medal of Honor: Airborne

T-Two: Carnival Games -> GTA4

and now: Sega: M&S at the Olympic Games, NiGHts -> Beijing 2008, Golden Axe

 

This does not make business sense. Wii has a larger, more accepting and less demanding audience than Xbox 360 or PS3, costs less to develop for and therefore requires less and has more sales, leading to great profit, and then developers make games which don't sell over 1 million and so lose far more money, leading to a net loss for a significant number of third parties.

Why are they doing this? This is unacceptable. Companies did not continue to support the Gamecube after it became apparent it would come third; why so the PS3? Companies did not support the Dreamcast after it stagnated despite being first on the market; why so the Xbox 360? Why the exclusives? Is there something to be gained from being exclusive even though you are guaranteed to lose money unless you come out with the next Halo 3? 

The Wii is graphically powerful enough to port basically all the games I'm talking about. Third parties grace it with a cut-down, spun-off, low-quality installments of big franchises or ruin actually creative ideas like Elebits or NiGHTs with poor control schemes. Quite often they ignore the Wii entirely and continue to publish high quality failures or break-even titles on the losing platforms. 

To add to this, there are still plenty of exclusive and big-budget PSP titles in development when software sales are abysmal and have been consistent in doing so, while ignoring the third-party successes (when companies do do something right)

Third parties: The Wii will sell your high-quality games and give you more profit on them than all of the other platforms combined; you just have to take it seriously and then spend time on the controls and graphics to make a worthy Wii port.

 

 

 



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yeah i dont understand,even though wii will get great games in 08 from third parties there still not on the level of ps3/360 success but i think that when wii user base in america >360+ps3 userbase in america western devs will start to support it more



tag:"reviews only matter for the real hardcore gamer"

Yeah, I don't think that's what's really happening. I somehow don't think Konami was using the profits from Elebits to fund MGS4 and Lost Planet was released before RE4: Wii E. Boogie and Playground didn't sell a lot so no way could the profits fund Airborne and Burnout.



^no but take 2 is using carnival games to fund GTA4



tag:"reviews only matter for the real hardcore gamer"

Assasins Creed was a huge success and most of those games you listed aren't even out, so we don't know how much they will sell.



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Assassins Creed bombed big time with 4m sales so far, although your point remains valid



It's very simple really, because 3rd parties started all those PS3/360 games prior to the systems launch (about a year for most) but only started Wii games after launch.

The industry has been having problems with rising costs - shrinking profits for years, this generation is really bringing that to a head, so if they can make some quick cash off the Wii to stay afloat until their big budget titles come out you can see why they'd want to. *cough*Take 2*cough*

This isn't to say good 3rd party games aren't coming, their just late to the party like they were with DS.

The other challenge is with the diverse consumer group the Wii has. Most 3rd party games are aim at a very specific demographic (15-25 male) which is only a fraction of the Wii's ownership. They need to make GOOD mainstream games for the Wii to find success.



 

Aj_habfan said:
Assasins Creed was a huge success and most of those games you listed aren't even out, so we don't know how much they will sell.

 Whatever they do sell, they would for certain sell better if on Wii as well.



Ubuntu. Linux for human beings.

If you are interested in trying Ubuntu or Linux in general, PM me and I will answer your questions and help you install it if you wish.

The best way to learn is the hard way.



Er... the most profitable game on that list is Assassin's Creed, so I really don't see your point.

And RE5 and MGS4 will likely sell a lot more than any other game on that list... or any game on the Wii that isn't published by Nintendo.

Even Lost Planet (which was garbage) has sold reasonably well on the 360 alone, without even taking the PS3 and PC into consideration.