Third-party development for the Nintendo Wii consoles has produced somewhat mixed results. H\

But at least we get a different reason for this each year.

2006 -- The Revolution (Wii) will never sell. It is going to be a distant third. Nintendo should stick to handhelds.

2007 -- The Wii is a fad. It will stop selling soon.

2008 -- Sure, there are a lot of Wiis. But no one is playing them. And they only buy Nintendo software. Third-party software does not sell well on that console.

This pattern will continue until its unfortuate end.

2009 -- Our efforts have not sold at the level we think they should, which proves that Wii owners only want mini-game collections and other junk that true gamers would never play. In other words, the Wii can't sell "hardcore games."  (Editor's note -- the company's do not mention that their games were underpublicized and/or of questionable quality),

2010 -- At this point in the console cycle, all of our resources have been expended in our support for the HD-capable consoles. For us to retool when new consoles are going to soon be making it into the marketplace would be folly, especially in these economic times. (Editor's note -- sales of many companies HD-capable games have been mixed and not always produced profits).

2011 -- We cannot develop games for the Wii or its successor -- or any console. We are going out of business. (Editor's note -- should have developed for the Wii).

OK, the last editorial comment is a bit less than being nice. But I can see all of this happening.

Mike from Morgantown

Its all true

Good points, even if they are a little cynically Wii-centric. There's always the more optimistic approach: that the gradual trend of more developers lending support to the Wii will continue.

On an unrelated note, why do you sign every single one of your posts?

well this year could change that with the 3rd party games coming out.

I hope this is the year that it changes. In some ways, I think it will be. But it is both an attempt at looking at the world through the eyes of a Wii owner who is fed up with the Sven's of the world. (That's Christian Svensson of Capcom).

As for signing all my posts, I guess I could just put it my sig. That would make life easier. It would also mean that I would not accidentally sign a work email "Mike from Morgantown."

Sadly, from deadly creatures performance, you will likely be spot on

The problem is that very few, if any, of the companies that put the bulk of their focus on HD gaming are profitable. Capcom's profits dropped by 95%, so they're still in the black, but they're doing something wrong. Take-Two is back with the shareholders nipping at their heels despite record revenues and a year with a flagship GTA title. Square-Enix's profits are down, though i'm not sure if they're in the red. Bethesda is up, presumably, but theirs is a sustainable business model. Eidos is going to be gone, Midway is practically gone.

Sustainable business models are needed. Wii development shouldn't be all of that model, but it should be part of it. Wii development should be the financial foundation, their security deposit against possibly more risky ventures on the HD Twins. EA's model, for instance, should pay off.

Third-parties will keep gradually coming around. We've got both Japanese and western support coming more and more.

It doesn't really do them much good to develop for a console that they don't understand.

Even if Wii games cost 1/3 to 1/4 to develop they also require much more marketing to make consumers aware, in some cases as much as the game costs to make if not more already making the total 2/3 to 1/2 of an HD game.

Considering that no one has seemed to make a game that has caught on with the Wii audience quite as well as Nintendo has that's still quite a risk. At least with the blockbuster style most publishers are accustomed to.

RE4 is game that many find to be of great quality. It has yet to reach 2 million according to VGChartz. Original games will cost more to develop and have a higher chance of flopping because of not being a well known i.p. Many say that the game may recover costs but publishers are looking for profit. Something that seems difficult to achieve on the Wii especially when you have Nintendo as competition. Who's going to buy a tennis game when they have Wii Sports, or racing game that must compete against MKWii?

Well, for a last generation game, I'd say over a million is quite good for RE4. Just pointing that out.