The Official July NPD Thread (data for 4 weeks ending 8/2 comes @ 6:30 est)

[bardicverse]

talkingparrot said:

bardicverse said:
I can see one thing for certain, once the Wii secures that 50% marketshare, all the devs are going to have to buckle under the pressure of the market leader stability.

I expect that studios are going to start making ground-up Wii games instead of scalred down ports from the HD consoles, and it will also be the end of PS2 ports. Just like how 3rd party development buckled to the pressure of the DS by the start of the 3rd year, the time for 3rd party support for the Wii is arriving and will carry the system to a place untouchable by any other consoles.

 

That makes zero sense. Third parties are more likely to make games on the HD consoles and than scale down. This will just mean more Wii games. New GTA coming out? It'll have a Wii port. New RE coming out? It'll have a Wii port. The casuals still haven't proven to buy in numbers that the hardcore have for third party games.

You apparently aren't versed in development, which is okay. It is more lucrative for a company to build an engine specific for the hardware they're supporting than it is to outsocurce modelers to revamp textures, character models, levels, weapons,etc. Engines = money through licensing. With the Wii getting into a position of ruling 50% of the current gen hardware, it brings more developer interest. More available engines and engines that can be licensed means for games that are more fluid and easier to design for that hardware. A 50% mark is a solid indicator of a no-fail market for a developer and publisher, unless of course they put out shovelware.

More time will be taken to make a better quality game, and they will allocate more team members and resources than just a skeleton team for porting a game. This is normal procedure since the advent of 3D gaming. Instead of trying to glean a quick buck, devs are going to work to establish themselves for the market leading console, again just as was done for the DS.