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Mazty on 14 December 2012
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Aielyn said:
Mazty said:
While wii U owners may be happy to buy more games in a care-free mindset, the fact is a developer would probably still sell more on the 360 with a more scrutinising market simply due to the sheer volume of 360's out there.

Actually this descision is simple economics. To try and claim it's a bad one is just a failing to do the math on your part, sorry. The fact that they aren't alone in this decision should speak volumes.

That's quite a claim to make of a guy with a PhD in mathematics, I must say.

There's a funny thing about "simple economics" - it's almost always bad economics. Economics is not a simple field, it is a highly complex area in which things are so non-linear, it's almost absurd. Decisions made right now, when the Wii U has a small install base, can make massive differences to the situation if and when the Wii U has an install base in the high double digits of millions.

This is why, for instance, so-called casual games did so well on the Wii - developers of these games put them on the Wii early, and established a strong install base for these games. And so, you now have, for example, Just Dance 4 on the Wii being the top-selling game of the week after 10 weeks on the market, despite the Wii's successor having been released already.

Consider the Rabbids franchise. Ubisoft released a strong version of the game on the Wii at launch. Now, they've had repeated million-sellers in the franchise on the system, while other versions, on other platforms, struggle. Why? Because they established a fanbase on the system from launch.

This is also why you always hear Ubisoft talking about the importance of launching new IPs at the beginning of a console's life - because that is how you create a strong and stable fanbase.

It's not a simple concept, I know. But your reductionist approach to economics has been disproven time and again, in the videogame industry and in other industries.

Considering that 1/3rd of all Wii U's have been sold in Japan, what exact estimate do you think of Wii U owners will buy Metro for the Wii U? You also have to consider the extra costs for developing for a new platform, and specifically programming for the pad. 

In short, it's really not worth it when you consider the much wider and lucrative markets of the PC, 360 and PS3. Comparing the Wii to the Wii U is flawed as the Wii did not offer the same games as the PS3 and 360 and was being offered when all the consoles were relatively young. The Wii U is trying to directly compete against a market of over 140 million console sales, and that's ignoring the PC.

State me the math to show otherwise plx.