Nintendo seems to be a victim of their own success. There is no doubt that this is a concern for developers. How many of those consoles sold were sold to gamers. Nintendo has marketed this machine to everyone from your grandparents to your four year old niece. Yes Wii sports is ample reason to buy the console. These people might only play that game on the console. Little concern for Nintendo they make money off of the machines, and their games will always sell to the gamers that buy the console. However how much room does that leave for third party developers.
The coveted market is the gamer market. Those are the folks that buy half a dozen games a year. Thats where you make your sales. Thats what makes sure you sell enough to make a profit. Thats where you can strike gold. Even Nintendo themselves have addressed this issue. The fear that the console does not have enough gamers. They have widened the market now they need to entice the core market. They know its a issue, and they have promised to work on it. That does however mean there is a problem.
The difficulty for third party developers is to know exactly what the demographics for the system are. They know what the demographics for the other three consoles are, but not the Wii. Thanks to the success of Nintendo in marketing, and unfortunately the Nintendo loyalists. They would have bought the machine regardless. Often only for Nintendo games. Thats why I have a Wii only for the Nintendo games.
You can't really blame the developers even we could not say how much of the current owners are actual gamers. Ironically the console doesn't even have a good litmus test. Zelda, and Resident Evil are both Gamecube ports. Hell Resident Evil is not even full price. Metroid has only sold half a million. Mario Party has obscene sales. Red Steel was a launch title. The Maddens have flopped, and the console has spent months being a barren wasteland. In spite of that the sales are through the roof. The console thwarts analysis.
The question really is this. Could the Wii be a true console, or is it a highly appreciated peripheral. Until developers see real proof to the effect they will be cautious. This is a serious issue for Nintendo. They need to prove to third party developers that it is a viable console. Lest the non gamers tire of the concept.
Not sure why people get upset about this its just common sense. We know Nintendo has sold to non gamers, and chances are your not going to get many of these new consumers to purchase anything beyond the pack in game.
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