Nintendo has lost the core market this generation

[Lord N]

All of the people who keep going on and on about the Wii and third-party support are missing something very important.

Nintendo is by far the largest video game developer and publisher in the world. It doesn't need third-party support to the extent that Microsoft and Sony need it. Nintendo's first and second party titles do more than all of those big-budget third-party titles that appear on the 360 and PS3. They have a higher profit margin and they give the Wii a more unique software library instead of the situation where the 360 and PS3 have virtually the exact same games.

Even then, third-parties actually make more money on Nintendo's platforms because of lower development costs. They can make a game for the Wii/DS and have it sell 500,000 copies and make a profit whereas turning same profit on the 360/PS3 would require selling 2-3 million copies of one of those high-budget titles that make their respective fanbases go crazy.

Take 2 posted a loss despite the success of GTAIV meanwhile smaller developers have made far more money with projects on the Wii and DS. Another thing you'll notice is that due to the fact that the 360 and PS3 appeal almost exclusively to the core and hardcore gamers that the Wii is allegedly leaving out, third parties have no choice but to stick to tried-and-true franchises and genres because they absolutely have to make sure that a game will sell at minimum 2-3 million copies in order to guarantee profit whereas the Wii and DS actually allow third-party devs to be a little more creative and take more risks.