As its already been said - many game budgets are already set, and their devs are building the engines for the games. I do believe, however, that for PS3 devs wanting PS3-exclusive games under the assumption are realizing that with such a small user base, it's difficult to make a profit, therefore multi-porting to the 360. The primary issue is this: If I am a dev, what would I rather do: 1. Dev for the 360 or PS3, and port to the other console, only having to modify the code to work on the CPU/GPU, ect to move the game to another console for under $500k USD. 2. Dev for the 360/PS3 and port it to the Wii, which would require quite a bit more work due to having to scale back textures, add in new devkits for the WiiMote (as stated), and pay quite a bit more, maybe $1m. Which is more economically feasable? IMO, its the 360/PS3 route. Despite complaining and general N-fanboyism, the PS3 and 360 are still the lead consoles to dev for. There's a 13m user base on both systems. The 360/PS3 base is staying steady in the US vs. Wii, increasing vs. Wii in Europe, and losing in Japan. Look at Trusty Bell for 360. Will it make money on 360 alone? Probably not. However, adding the PS3 in there, will make the game quite profitable. A good example is Enchant Arm. It sold good on the 360 (not great), had 50k in Japan, and another 150k in the US/Europe or more. Probably around 200k units. Once it got ported to the PS3, it's sold around another 75-100k. Easily worth porting, and taking a game that maybe broke even, to actually make From Software a few bucks. The same can be said for AC4 - it sold 90k on PS3 in Japan, another 25k on 360, and 100k+ on both PS3/360 in the US. There's no way just deving on the Wii would of made the game more profitable. Honestly, it'll take 2 YEARS of the Wii selling as good as it is to even get anywhere near the level that would be required for a major dev to say "lets move our big name franchise to Wii-exclusivity, or make the Wii the lead console". It just won't happen. Has the Wii's succuess garnered more software sales for Nintendo systems than in the past? Absolutely, but still, the 360/PS3 are the lead systems to dev for.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
