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exindguy on 03 May 2008
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Actually, WoW, you don't quite understand. While the scenarios you outlined have happened, in the vast, vast majority of cases, the publisher sets the tone and the developers follow suit--not the other way around.

Basically, if the publishers don't want to finance Wii games (because it's a 'fad' or only shovelware/mini-game comps/Nintendo games sell, etc.) the developers aren't going to show any interest in it. The reason they're not going to show any interest in it is because it's *suicidal* to develop games that nobody will publish. And, up until recently, nobody on the publishing end was really interested in the Wii from an original, non-casual (in the mom/dad/sis/grandma/grandpa playing games), mold. A perfect case in point is that publishers are *clearly* signaling that they want Wii product in this style/complexity (if there's a dozen after your game as in this case, it's a safe bet they want more).

In the case of High Voltage, they are an anomaly in a very risk-averse business (the prevalence of sequels makes this painfully obvious) and, clearly, they must have other business (on 360/PS3) and/or a large amount of cash in the bank to justify what, at the time, had to be considered a dangerous move (even if it's clear that it was the right one now) because they had no publisher and went ahead anyway. But let's be clear: this is a very, very unusual situation (even the Biowares of the world--of which even Bioware isn't even amongst anymore--don't self-finance entire games that cost north of 20 million dollars to produce without publisher backing--hell, they don't even self-publish Wii games that cost 500k-1 million dollars).

What it comes down to is HS had it correct the first time around:

"You do realize that developers only get to make the projects that publishers are interested in funding ...

There are a few exceptions, but the number of truely independant developers who can fully fund their own game (in particular a big budget game) is very, very small."

This situation (Conduit and High Voltage) actually illustrates that if you have a Wii game to sell to a publisher, there are quite a few of them that want it badly because they like money and probably want more games like it because they want more money. It doesn't speak at all to overall developer interest but I can assure you: after this episode they will be a lot more interested than they were a few weeks ago (as if they weren't already getting there due to the Wii's sales rate).