As The Wii Has Roughly The Install base of Ps360 Combined......

[mike_intellivision]

To begin with, you should not assume. It makes an ass out of you and me. And that first word describes many people who are like to take potshots at the Wii.

Now back to the OP and third-party development on the Wii. There are a variety of things at work. First of all, anyone who thinks the Wii can do the same things as the PS3 or Xbox 360 is delusional. Certainly those consoles are more powerful. But then again, the Wii is more powerful than anything from the last generation. That means that anything ported to the PS2 could easily be made available to the Wii (and before we get into any discussions about how strong the Wii is, remember, the GC was more powerful than the PS2 and the Wii is at least as powerful as the GC).

So choices on many games are not technology-based but rather economic-based. Looking at the install demographics of the Wii, they are quite different than those of other consoles. So even though the install/current user base may be large, there is probably some hesitancy to port things that are thought not to have as great a sales potential to the Wii.

Meanwhile, developers who make an effort to do more than port over PS2 games and add wiggle are often rewarded. Both Shaun White Snowboarding and Sonic Unleashed had versions that were built specifically for the Wii. Both found critical and retail success.

Finally, remember that development cycles are slow. Everyone talks about two years. But some games can take longer (I'm looking at you FF13). And even last year, there were still analysts claiming that the Wii was a fad -- and information like that has probably continued to color some companies judgements.

Mike from Morgantown