Where are the 1st party Wii casual games?

[Steve 3.2]

I think Nintendo is purposely holding back a little on Wii development for a couple of reasons:

1. Encourage Third Party Development. Nintendo systems have been home to great sales of Nintendo titles and bad to lukewarm sales for third party games. (Partly the third parties' fault, but that's not the point.) If Nintendo publishes too many titles, it won't leave enough room for others to sell their games. It would also cannibalize Nintendo sales. So you'll see about an average of one first party Wii titles per month. That's not too shabby (even if a few of them are ports from the GameCube or simple games like Brain Age).

2. Nintendo DS. It's the biggest system on the market right now. (Yes, there are more PS2s out there but game sales are quickly falling off as people stop playing them.) While Nintendo doesn't have to do much to help sell the system, the potential on the DS is higher than the Wii can even dream of right now. So I'd imagine that about half of Nintendo is working on DS games while the other half works on Wii titles.

3. Wii Needs Something for Everyone. Yes, the Wii is trying to be a jack of all trades. Pretty to look at and easy to use, but also with some serious games thrown into the mix. Nintendo needs to keep their faithful happy while trying to expand the market. (Without the faithful, the GameCube would have been an even bigger flop.) These more complex titles take more time. And once again, Nintendo's development resources are big but limited.

4. Wii Supplies Limited. There aren't enough Wiis out there to support demand already. How is Nintendo going to get even more people into gaming if the current ones who want in can't find a system? There a reason why the next big 'casual' title to hit the US isn't coming until after the holiday rush. And Wii Fit will keep demand strong well into 2008.