High production values on games.

[davygee]

Okay, my tuppence worth:

A large number of 3rd party developers are now wanting a piece of the Wii, but there is and will still be some caution surrounding what games and what kind of budget should be spent on said game.

Have a look at the top 20 Wii games worldwide; there are only 7 of those 20 titles that are 3rd party, and the highest selling 3rd party title had Mario in it, so it was likely to sell anyway.  The next title is Guitar Hero III clocking in at 1.5m worldwide.

Now seeing as the Wii has a worldwide userbase of 20m, thats not a huge amount.  Most of the other top 20 titles are coming in around the 1m mark.

Look at EA as a publisher, all of their 17 Wii titles are all well under 1m.

Here is a little comparison.  Compare the top 20 of the Wii with the PS3.  The Wii remember has more than double the consoles in peoples home as well.  I have added up the total sales of all 3rd party titles and here goes:

Wii:

7 third party titles in top 20, with accummulated sales of 9.8m with a 20.5m userbase

PS3:

15 third party titles in top 20, with accummulated sales of 13.6m with a 9.5m userbase

As you can see, it is harder for Wii games to push themselves into the top 20 and sell the same amount compared to the 1st party games.

Also, Wii games are cheaper than PS3 games and doesn't Nintendo take a good chunk of the royalties for each disc as well?

Anyway, IMHO, I reckon it's not worth it for a 3rd party developer to spend a BIG budget on a Wii game.  It's a risk that they do not need to take.  They can spend 5m on a game and sell 1m units and make a healthy profit.