Wii "inhospitable platform for third-party publishers"

[mike_intellivision]

This analyst does not seem to know the meaning of the word "inhospitable."

To me, the title says that Nintendo is making life a living hell for developers again -- like it did in the NES days. That is not the case. Basically, if you have a pulse, Nintendo will let you program for the Wii.

Instead, the person is complaining about the relative under performance of the Wii version of Madden NFL 09 and some other points (when was the last time that THQ had a top 10 game?).

Here are my points.

First of all, since NPD does not have Wal-Mart or Toys R Us data, it may be using out-of-date (i.e., Gamecube generation) models to estimate sales from those retailers. Given how different the Wii is from the GC, and given how Toys R Us basically has dismissed the PS3 in its displays, this may not be appropriate or providing good results.

Second, Wii sports games don't sell as well as they might on other consoles. So that is not a good barometer of third-party Wii sales.

Third, Wii games sell differently than other games. They are not front loaded but rather have "legs." Some analysts don't get this concept because they are too busy looking for the next Halo-type sales event instead of looking at the big sales picture.

Fourth, Wii has a lot of low-range sellers from third-parties. A 100k here, a 100k there -- do that 50 times and it adds up.

Finally, as has been cited before, Nintendo answered this question with NPD data showing that it is faring well with third-party sales.

Just some things to think about it.

Mike from Morgantown

I would love to be a video game analyst -- but I could not afford the cut in pay.