Another thing I've wondered but never bothered to ask is if the Wii is really this cheap, low risk system people make it out to be? Companies can easily whip up a minigame compilation in a few months for next to nothing and throw it on the market, but that's not really what we're talking about here.
If companies are going to really try and take a bite out of Nintendo's dominance and produce the software on-par with it, for a start developement is going to cost a significient amount. Definitely not anything like the HD consoles but I'd estimate it at $6 milion to $8 million on an 18 month to 2 year developement cycle. Hard to get figures, I'd imagine stuff like Smash Bros and Mario Galaxy was even higher, but they are the crem de la crem.
Where I think the risk with the Wii comes in is marketing, Wii takes alot more marketing to really reach the core of it's userbase, and marketing don't come cheap. I know EA in the past have cancelled finished games because they didn't think it'd sell and cover the extra marketing costs alone, I've not got any solid figures for how much a strong marketing campaign would be though, if anyone would help.
There are other revenue things too, 360 / PS3 RRP is an extra 10 $ / £ and it gets extra money from DLC, not sure what royalties Nintendo / Sony / Microsoft claim though. Also I'd imagine the PS3 / 360 model of having their sales heavy at the front of release results in greater returns - no games sold at price cuts and less competition from the pre-owned market.
I don't know, guess I'm posting to see if anyone has much of a clue. I don't think anyone on here really knows well enough how much games costs and if the Wii is really as cheap as people make out. Anyone care to help? Seems to go pretty well with the original posters point.
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