Reggie says most Wii games can make a profit with under a million sold.

[SaviorX]

Reggie is always being misquoted....and ends up with a situation that looks like he has his foot in his mouth. Overall he should keep the PR to a minimum, because it isn't working from Nintendo of America's side. I'd actually go on to say I like Cammie more than him, although she is more misinformed than him.

As for the Wii games profiting and such, I'll drop a couple tidbits I have picked up over the years:

• EA CEO John Ricitiello said in January 2009: "Development is typically a third to a fourth as much for a Wii game then it is for a PS3 or an Xbox 360 game.
• Nintendo's own Reggie Fils-Aime states developing games for the Nintendo DS is cheap, costing only a few thousand dollars to develop and only needing to sell 100k units to make a profit. Wii games require about $5-10 million in the average case, including marketing costs. He asserts PS3 and X360 games need much more resources, from $20 million up to a staggering $50 million with sales of 1.3 to 1.5 million units to make money on them.
• Namco Bandai Holdings President Takeo Takasu said rising development costs for next-generation games mean companies need to sell at least 500,000 copies in order to make a profit. Mr. Takasu said graphics for PS3 games can cost nearly $9 million to create — more than double the price tag for Wii titles
• Jagex states that Casual games, especially on the Wii, tend to have higher profit margins and thus are able to have price reductions while still making a healthy profit
• exact licensing fee varies based on the manufacturer (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft), as well as any deals they may give a publisher, but it can generally be anywhere from $3 to $10 per unit.'Wholesalers typically pay around $30 per game and with the costs of getting the goods to the wholesalers, any co-op advertising or marketing, and return of good contingencies being roughly $14 per game, the publisher is going to typically get $16 for every unit sold (This is for PS3/360 games; Wii games are lower in each section)
• “Fortunately, it doesn’t take nearly as many people to make games for these platforms. It takes maybe 30 people to make a Wii game"- Rich Hilleman: Chief Creative of EA
• This is just my personal educated guess, but I think Madworld cost $9-$12.5 million, while The Conduit cost $5-$8 million total (HVS had to fund the project themselves initially)