To start off, I'm really glad at the response to this thread. Most of my threads die after a few posts, but this one has really taken off.
@sc94597: Thank you. I was starting to think most people just looked at the title and came in screaming. It's meant to show why 3rd parties haven't been as successful as Nintendo, and how they can achieve that level of success. Of course, anything about a million is successful enough, so many 3rd parties can (and have) reached that point, but people will continue complaining that Nintendo games are the top sellers.
@BengaBenga: I wasn't really saying the Wii 3rd party games were failing, or any of that. If Capcom would have advertised Z&W a bit more, it could have pushed 500k by now. That's where I was aiming. The fact that 3rd party games are not raising to the same level as Nintendo games (even when those said 3rd party games meet or exceed Nintendo's quality) is because of one or more of the reasons that I stated. Lack of advertising kept Z&W from being a bigger seller. It may not have passes a million either way, but advertising couldn't have hurt. No More Heroes probably could have really benefited from advertising.
@yushire: It was late (midnight or so), and I have dial up, and my sister wanted it, so I had to leave. Sorry.
@yushire big post with the points:
1st Point - That's exactly what I'm saying. "No big name games he says? What about RE games?" And look how much the RE games have sold. Same with GH, another big name game. Sonic and the Secret Rings sold really well too. Big name game. Maybe if more big name games were put on the Wii, they'd be able to compete with Nintendo's games?
2nd Point - The quality is getting better.
3rd Point - Besides EA, which usually does advertise, few games have been advertised. And the one game that EA has advertised, namely MySims (though I think MOH:H2 was advertised a bit), has been a big success.
4th Point - You do have a point there. But most of those games have been relatively successful. And that's exactly what I was trying to say. I wasn't saying that 3rd parties can't be successful. I was saying that they probably won't because they're always a step behind when it comes to the new "fad of games that sell on the Wii." Your list shows that some 3rd parties are getting it right, and can do it before Nintendo does.
But I'm glad some of you decided to read through the "essay" as yushire puts it. I really wasn't saying that 3rd parties can't do well on the Wii. I was merely pointing out that until 3rd parties give Wii games the same ingredients for success, they'll never get the same kind of success that Nintendo has been. For the record, the ingredients that I am talking about are: a high quality game (many 3rd parties fail here anyway, and bad cookies result), either a established, non-spin off, big name game OR a new IP that has a good amount of hype around it, and a good marketing compaign. Once you take out one of these, sales will drop. Boom Blox, a high quality new IP with a decent amount of hype, doesn't manage great sales because it wasn't advertised (properly at least, marketing to 8-12 years olds isn't advertising).
Also, as an added flavor, making your game appeal to many demographics helps. Nintendo's games cater to many different people, and as thus are able to tap into the whole Wii userbase, and as such the games can sell better. But not every game can cater to everyone (or even the majority of users), so Nintendo level success isn't always possible anyway. But high success is possible. You just need to know how to make the cookies. And, surprise, it isn't much different than how you make cookies on the PS3 and X360.
