Wii "inhospitable platform for third-party publishers"

[trestres]

Impulsivity said:
I don't know how it can change really, how do you get Wii users to start buying good games in higher numbers and stop buying crap games? Almost every company looks at their release slate and their dev teams then tries to maximize profit. They look at the PS3 and 360 and see Call of Duty 2, 3, and 4 selling millions of copies between the two systems so you get Battlefield Bad Company, Army of Two, Mercenaries 2 (insert the million other FPS war games here), ect ect. They look at the sales of Assassin's Creed and GTA4 and now there are a ton of "sandbox" action games coming out in the near future for the PS3 and 360. Good sales for AAA HD games lead to more AAA HD games since its clear that the big sellers for the 360 and PS3 are almost always....AAA HD games with very few exceptions. There have been at most a handful of games that aren't AAA action games which have gone over a million sales on either the PS3 or the 360.

On the other hand when EA and the like are trying to figure out what to have their Wii teams work on, they look at the sales charts and see a different reality. In the Wiiality even AAA games like Boom Blox sell relatively little, decent selling PS2 games sell almost nothing even with great ratings (Okami) and pretty much every big seller comes from the big N. When trying to find a Wii Niche there is of course a big fat bright spot, what is that spot? Hyper casual games. They see Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Carnivale games and others with millions of sales. Those games are the AAA HD games of the Wii for 3rd parties more or less. If you want to know why the Wii wall is filled with My Poniez 2, Imagine Babiez, mini game collections and assorted other crap its the way the market is going.

This is compounded by the Wii requiring separate development. Even in the N64 days they could still port PS1 games. You could still take Resident Evil 1 and 2 and port it over to the N64 relatively easily since the N64 and PS1 were pretty close in terms of graphics and power (Nintendo had more power, Sony had more space, but it was very doable anyway). Instead today you can't just port AAA HD games from Sony and MS over to the Wii, if you want a Wii version a separate team has to make it, at best you can combine Wii production with PS2 production (ala Manhunt 2, another big selling PS series which didn't deliver on the Wii), but that doesn't bring you the same kinds of games.

The Xbox didn't sell well but it still got a lot more ports from the PS2 then the Wii, which has sold very well, is getting from the 360/PS3 because of the ease or porting. On one hand its great the Wii went the cost effective low tech route, but on the other it shuts them out of multi platform titles which means it has to prove it can sell AAA games not made by Nintendo too, or be doomed to shovelware+great Nintendo 1st party games.

Maybe the Wii fans can buy the Conduit and get everyone the know to buy the conduit to prove finally that a AAA game not made by Nintendo can sell on the platform.

As a quick asside, this lack of non Nintendo performance is exactly why Nintendo was stupid to let Rare go when they already had a 10% stake. It would have been easier for Nintendo to scoop up Rare then for MS to do it. Remember Conkers bad fur day, Donkey Kong 64, Banjo and TONS of other Rare games on the N64? Rare and its great 2nd party support really helped mitigate the problems with 3rd parties Nintendo had on the N64, Nintendo really needs a stabe of solid 2nd party developers to get the ball rolling, but they sold their best one down the river.

Imagine if instead of Wii Music being the next big thing from the Wii Nintendo had Viva Pinata and Banjo nuts and bolts coming down the pike, I think Rare alone would have greatly helped in mitigating the 3rd party problem (and unlike most 3rd party games on N64 and later Nintendo consoles, Rare games sell millions while maintaining quality).

 

Why do you sum up PS3 + 360 numbers here? HD fans always use this lame excuse, more so PS3 fans. I've seen many of those PS3 games being flops while 360 games being the ones to report amazing sales. If you use this logic then Madden Wii is not a flop because it is a multiplat release.

 

Also why name only the great hits and not the great flops, like Too Human, Lair, Haze, Stranglehold, Nascar, Bourne Conspiracy, Alone in the Dark, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Ridge Racer 6 and 7, Dead or Alive Extreme, Moto GP 06 and 07, The Club, Virtua Fighter 5, Final Fantasy XI, Conflict: Denied Ops, Amped 3, Enchanted Arms, Top Spin 2 and 3, Sega Superstar Tennis, Blacksite: Area 51, Viva Piñata: Party Animals, Eye of Judgement, Far Cry Instincts: Predator, Dinasty Warriors 6 (360), Battlestations: Midway, Call of Juarez, Gun, Chromehounds, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, Overlord, Two Worlds, The Godfather, Medal of Honour Airbone, Shadowrun, Viking: Battle for Asgard, Beijing 2008, Hitman Blood Money, The Outfit, Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Beautiful Katamari, Bowulf, Def Jam Icon, Tenchu Z, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Quake 4, Eternal Sonata, Clive Barker's Jericho, NHL 06 07 08, NHL 2K7 2K8, The Bigs, NBA 2K6 2K7, NBA Live 06 07, NBA Street Homecourt, The Golden Compass, Iron Man, Conan, Culdcept Saga, Fatal Inertia, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Project Sylpheed, Blazing Angels 2, Sega Rally Revo.... I can go on forever.