When will 3rd parties take the Wii seriously?

[HappySqurriel]

Renar said:
POOMA numbers. (Pulled out of my ass)

Numbers from VG, of course. Which the database needs a bit of updating, I admit (eg, Wii Fit = 0 sales)

Estimated Average Cost to make a game for the console.
$15M PS3 / X360

$7M Wii

Net sales $ back to publisher (game cost $60 for PS3, X360, $50 for Wii. Yes, $30 games are available, but then costs are even lower) Number sold to meet development cost. Estimated number sold now to reach number sold by LTD.
$40 net 375k 275 now
$30 net 235k 150 now

Total number of game for platform. 1st party#, 3rd party #, % of 3rd party s/b profitable
All MS 271 MS 20 3rd 251 30.7%
Total MS > 375 74 MS 12 3rd 62
MS> 275 90 MS 13 3rd 77

All PS3 165 PS3 20 3rd 145 13.8%
Total PS3>375 21 PS3 5 3rd 18
PS3>275 26 PS3 6 3rd 20

All Wii 245 Wii 19 3rd 226 15.9%
Total Wii>235 45 Wii 17 3rd 28
Wii>150 55 Wii 19 3rd 36


Yes, there are a lot of extra variables. 2nd party sales, just released games, database in # sold not up to date. But I think it show an overall picture.

Numbers I found interesting.
MS has published in 2 years what Sony and Nin. did in 1.
# of games from 3rd parties for Nin. nearly matches MS.
MS 3rd party success rate of 30%. Only because of the year head start and thus more sales during that first year (limitted competition) and larger sales base for most of this year.

If you strongly disagree with these numbers, fine. Just show where you are getting your more accurate costs, net $ sales, etc.

Well, my disagreement is that the number we keep seeing is that a Wii game costs 1/4 to 1/2 as much as a similar PS3 or XBox 360 and (as this thread has pointed out) the Wii has not been getting games which were similar in scale to the PS3 or XBox 360. Basically, a game like EA Playground, My Sims, Boogie, Carnival Games, and Rayman Raving Rabids probably cost anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 what it would cost to make a Wii game like Assassin's Creed, Army of Two or Rainbow Six Vegas; when you combine this with the Wii version of a game like Assassin's Creed, Army of Two or Rainbow Six Vegas ending up costing 1/4 to 1/2 of their PS3 version it suggests that many of these Wii games may have cost 1/16 to 1/4 what was spent on an XBox 360 game.