Are wii development costs really cheaper?

[Pristine20]

@ Kitler53 and Famousringo

from reading your posts, I understand that it's about more vs less chances to gamble on the market which is what the HD consoles have caused but the question remains whether the wii is really the answer for 3rd parties. I'm not too sure if releasing 2, 3 or 4 MGS-type games on wii would have been a better gamble than even only one on ps3 because like Kitler pointed out, while in the ps2 gen, all consoles were pretty much analogous to one another, we have a problem on our hands this gen.

Is it "safer" to release a game like MGS with similar quality at maybe 1.3 the resources (adding marketing which is constant) vs releasing the game on a single platform with less than half the userbase but where a mil is guaranteed? Fanbase for the type of game one develops isalso crucial. I'm not sure SSBB would sell millions on ps3. It's even more complicated when you haven't decided what project the "liberated"employees would work on after project 1 is done.

@famousringo

Also, many people seem to think every third party would be better served by switching to wii but I like how you only considered "small, independent devs" because market saturation would be a result of everyone jumping into the fray. Even the ps2's userbase could only manage 200 mil sellers because newcomers usually buy the known good games before taking gambles. Thus newcomers, would still have to consider SMG, MKwii, Zelda, SSBB, wii fit, etc before considering your entry. As saturation and established IPs increase, prospects decrease. So even if the 4 game strategy was possible, it may not look god at that stage.

My rant basically boils down to this: wii isn't the answer many people think. The gaming industry may just have to downsize to restore profitability.