I know that...although it depends on the game, but i did say "at least 360"...I don't really expect many PS3 games being ported to Wii.

It's not so much glossing over what he says. It's more a matter of ambition vs reality.

I like that he places quality over quantity, but you still need the quantity to add up. At the end of the day, you still need to pay wages.  Plus, it's not like the Xbox was being made by a company short on cash and with little in the way of marketing budget. What was that for the Xbox? First 500mil, then another 500mil, I believe?

If you are a game developer and know a system's hardware (Xbox) really rocks the boat, and you have a mega-corporation in the guise of Microsoft backing it with oh so very much money, I don't think that is a very risky proposition to develop for. With the initial marketing budget, I think Team Ninja knew that the Xbox was playing for keeps.

It really wasn't such a tough decision to make, IMO.  Now if this was, say, a couple of generations back, when the 3DO and Jaguar were in the market, and Team Ninja decided to develop games for either one of those consoles, then I'd say Mr Hayashi is really putting his money where his mouth is.

I think people are missing the point if developpers focused uniquely on install base then they would wait 3 or 4 years before even releasing any games, no one knows how many consoles will get sold and if their game is good it will sell big even if the install base is 3 million or 10 million, were not talking about consoles with only a few dozen sales here. And i think his message is rather that they will stick to their plans and focus on the game rather then worrying about the console trends.

Actually, now that I think of it, it's not the developers that really have to worry about such things as install base. That's the publisher's job.

The developers just have to come up with something marketable for a publisher to pick up and tout. 

 We're also not talking projects that cost a few hundred dollars and a week or two of work. We're talking about large teams working on a project that need a profitable company to pay their wages so they can eat and make another game later.

 .... its only out in Japan...

its likely to hit a mill once relesed world wide. 

 Resistance already did around 50 million in revenue, iI really doubt Insomniacs is loosing any sleep over $lol

are you kidding?  It's a gundam game, and it's also a game similar to dynasty warriors gameplay.  That kind of game sells well in Japan, but not so well in the west.  it's at 250k now, it's not even gonna get close.  

It would be nice if they could ignore sales and just release it, but like it or not install base is a big factor

Here is a good example:  This game got very good reviews, but it just wasn't a game that caused people to go buy systems.  When VF5 came out PS3 sales spiked from 21,000 to 24,000, not exactly extraordinary. 

Read, Hus, read.

I said similar-type games, not Resistance or Motostorm games.

And, as johnsobas pointed out in his comparison chart, if I developed VF5, I would be worried...

IIRC, I read somewhere (maybe here?) about how Virtual Fighter 5 is a big hit in the arcades.

Multiple monitors to see fights from other machines around the world?

Only being able to lease the VF5 arcade machine rather than buy it , make whatever profit after paying certain dues