Why do people claimed only Nintendo games sell on Nintendo platforms as if a bad thing?

[binary solo]

snowdog said:
Third party titles not selling on the Wii is a gaming urban myth. There are plenty of titles that have earnt publishers a profit - Mario and Sonic, Just Dance, Red Steel, Red Steel 2, Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles, Monster Hunter Tri, House of The Dead 2 and 3, House of The Dead Overkill, Tatsunoku Vs Capcom, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, FIFA (even though it's seriously gimped on the Wii), Muramasa Demon Blade, the Trauma Center games and Madworld spring to mind.

As Ubisoft and Sega are going to find out with ZombiU and Aliens Colonial Marines respectively, if a publisher puts effort into a game for a Nintendo console and - most importantly - markets it properly it'll sell. It's really not rocket science. The majority of those titles I listed above get a A for effort but a B-D for marketing and they all either met or exceeded expectations.

Have a look at the Wii titles that've sold over 500K and compare it to the amount of PS3 and 360 titles that have sold the same, even if you ignore the fact that PS3 and 360 development is more expensive there's a shitload more Wii titles that have gone gold compared to PS3 and 360 titles. The 'third party titles don't sell on Nintendo consoles' excuse may have been valid with the N64 and Gamecube at times but nowadays it's an urban myth that some people in the industry can't shake, and probably won't shake until the 'hardcore' launch and launch window titles for the U sell like hotcakes. And when (there is no 'if' about it) that happens there are going to be more than a few executives kicking themselves for not supporting the U right out of the gate when Ubisoft have money coming out of their ears.

Best check your facts before you make such bold claims.

Wii games >500K = 276 out of 2695 total games = 10.25%

Xbox 360 games >500K = 306 out of 3183 total games = 9.61%

PS3 games >500K = 305 games out of 2578 total games = 11.83%

Clearly PS3, the lowest selling console with almost 30 million fewer consoles sold than Wii, wins that battle on % and beats Wii quite handily in absolute numbers. And 360 wins the battle on absolute numbers (although nothing in it between PS3 and 360). Ergo Wii actually loses that line of argument quite embarassingly given its substantial hardware dominance. Indeed losing the 500K race is rather unprecedented for the generation's winning console.

PS2 won the 500K race massively with an enormous 628 games getting there (XB 156, GC 96). PS1 won the 500K race with a big 383 games crossing that line (N64 96, Saturn 11). SNES won with a meagre 77 (Genesis 11).

So, in the 500K race Wii actually comes out looking historically bad. Wii HW has sold roughly on par with PS1 but has 100 fewer 500K games than PS1, and it's lost the 500K race to consoles that sold substantially fewer units. Indeed Wii moved less total software than PS1 in total and in SW per console.

Fully half of Wii's SW lead over the 360 can be attributed to a single game: The auto bundled (in most countries) Wii Sports.

With all that context Wii's software performance isn't as impressive as a first glance might suggest.