That is only half their job.

Nintendo's job is to sell consoles AND to convince developers to make games on its console, in the process making the console even more successfull.

If you want an analogy it's exactly the same as Microsoft and Vista.

Microsoft 's job is to sell Vista AND to convince developers to write applications for it to make Vista even more successfull...

I'ts not a one sided business with just the console maker and the consumer, Third parties are the middle-man and you can blame them for not hoping on the Wii train as much as you can blame Nintendo for not making a compelling argument on why they shoudn't have hoped onto that train...

In that regard Microsoft and Sony have done a much better job. Part of the reason was that they didn't have such a tough sell-job, but at times they ditched out money to third parties and made sure from the start that they had an early look into what their console was and what their plan was....

Nintendo's approach seemed more to have been we're going to make a console that is going to be different and sell like hot cakes, make kick ass games for it and once it rules them all third parties will have no choice but to hop on...That's not the way to build business partnerships..

Seriously, if they had wanted Nintendo could have payed a third party to put one of it's top franchises on the Wii, and probably would have gotten back 5 times the money that game would have costed them by now due to snowball effect...( because once you get a few of the top franchices, the rest of the pack hops on..)

I repeat: if you don't know, shut up. Nintendo and Apple had more in common than you think. Both companies are customer oriented and are more worried about creating customer base based products than pushing the state to the art tecnolkogy. Both had hardware and software divisions that are tied one to the other and both follow the blue ocean strategy, and are disruptors in their own field.

Also, you're talking about the iphone but that's more the companies approach than Apple's. Besides, do you think that Nintendo didn't approached companies? of course they did. the difference is that they are not like MS and Sony that pay for exclusivities, they approach them differently.

I am sorry but no matter what argument you want to TWIST, the only ones to blame to bad 3d party support are 3D Parties. You really have to GROW UP and face the reality sonyfanboy.

And to conclude, the only ones that decides if a game/console is good are the customers, not 3d parties. They keep making mediocre games and blaming the auidence and Nintendo like spoiled little babies instead of facing the truth and make their mistakes. Some companies like SEGA and EA have done it but the rest are still in their bubble and like the guys from the Atari XE they will dissapear or be absorbed to avoid failure.

lol, this thread is entertaining - it shows that Wii supporters are just humans after all and not the angelic larger than life beings they are often portrayed as (by other Wii fans)

3rd party developers made their decisions and will go on making them in what they think is the best way. You can critizise them all you want, but in the end you'll have to accept it and I think I see some of you guys going through the stages of acceptance.

@Lafiel, you are right we can criticize 3rd parties all we want because in all reality almost all 3rd parties are suffering. They made their decisions and their decisions suck. Pretty much all of them are losing money except a few and they aren't banking anywhere Nintendo is. So in all actuality, 3rd parties only wish they could make the games Nintendo makes.

Actually if things keep going the way they currently are I woudn't be surprised if within a 2-5 years time frame Activision-Blizzard didn't became a third party that could compete with the like of Nintendo.

ATVI is flushed with cash ( 3 billion $ on the balance sheet, no debts and they even have a 1 billion $ stock buy back program going on ) and have huge positive cash flow( and no matter the success of next year CoD and GH, the cash flow will stay hugely positive thanks to Wow) and it would not be surprising if they picked up some of the better development studios of those publishers that are currently suffering.( If TakeTwo ever dies personally I think Rockstar would be a much better match for ATVI than for EA like it was tried..).

Heck Blizzard has a 11 million captive audience that will consider seriously buying the next Blizzard product and is aware on a regular basis of every ongoing development at Blizzard.( and like it or not, is globally happy with what Blizzard is delivering..)

And Blizzard (or ATVI with GH) doesn't need lessons from anyone on how to attract casual gamers and retain them..

 Ladies and gentlemen, this may be this forums post of the year.  Well put.

This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.  Factor 5 only has itself to blame for its financial downfall.

I commend Blizzard for being disrupters in their own right with WOW.  However I fail to see where your financial numbers are coming from; which balance sheet and income statement are you looking at?

Balance sheet - http://finance.aol.com/financials/activision-blizzard-inc/atvi/nas/balance-sheet -  Their cash position is 1.25 billion not the 3 billion you seem to be purporting.  I can tell you right now, that cash likely will hold firm given the economy, and the fact that they will need that liquidity to protect their balance sheet going forward.

The do not have long-term debt, however to say they have no liabilities at all is ludicrous as they clearly have over $621 million in current liabilites.  This is further evidence that to maintain good liquidity, that 1.25 billion in cash is not going anywhere, as I am sure they want to maintain a good quick ratio (Cash + A/R :  current liabilities).

According to their income results for their fiscal year 2008, they posted a net loss of $107 million.  Edit: It should also be noted that their net change in cash position is -5.73 million. (http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:ATVI)

Either you are reading their old financials, or you have no idea how to read a financial statement properly.

Ail convincing people to buy Wii's is Nintendo's only job, same with M$ and Sony. They convince them in part with software. If Nintendo's job was to bargain with licensees the it wouldn't be called a license, which is what you need to develop on that platform. Your mixing up who does what. Also what's the point in telling people they fail?