You're very much mistaken. The Wii gets a lot more 3rd party games than either the PS3 or the 360.

However, it is true that the majority of high budget established IP 3rd party games are going to the PS360, and this is obviously because the 3rd parties were 'betting on the wrong horse'

Monster Hunter 3, which released very recently, began life as a PS3 game, and was changed to a Wii game due to the sales situation

FFXIII was originally a PS3 game, and development was too far along when SE realised the PS3 was not going to be the PS2, so they couldn't cancel it, instead they made it multiplat

Fact is, Wii launched end of 2006. The overwhelmng majority of industry analysts were predicting Wii doom all throughout 2007 and early 2008. It has been about 2 years since 3rd parties realised the Wii would win the console race (it is now the minority of analysts that still cling to their dream of the PS3 overtaking the Wii) A good video game take 4 years to develop. So that is why most big names have gone to the PS360 so far

It's taken a long time, but 3rd parties are now supporting the Wii

2 things in my mind made this generation different.

1. The generation itself was a mix of last gen with a twist (with a game that captured the imagination of that twist thrown in) and the often perceived true next gen minus the twist. Both the Wii and its motion control and the HD twins proved themselves to be highly popular but in different markets, which in itself makes this generation different.

2. All three consoles became more than just games machines with the inclusion of the internet from gaming updates to the capabilities of the consoles themselves. Again this made the consoles very much different.

It will be interesting to see if the HD twins can capture some of that interest in the motion technology possible forcing Nintendo into the HD gaming world early. This next phase is going to be an interesting one.

Big developing studios had expanded and invested a lot in tecnology to make HD games prodution possible and profitable because they made a bet on that horse. Now they don't want to really push further the Wii, a platform that goes in a totally different direction and makes those investments pratically useless. In fact, if look at it jRPGs developers are the only ones that haven't yet shifted on HD consoles development (with the exception of square on FFXIII) and haven't yet supported all those costs, they are now the only ones seriously developing on DS and Wii.

Also it's true that the wii userbase its not as "hardcore" as Ps3 and 360, but on the other hand if you want an "hardcore" userbase on a platform the only thing that you can do is to actually start to develop some serious games. At the moment most companies are just not willing to take the risk. I also think that some developer was expecting 360/ps3 to mimic the wii in some way, adopting motion controls, in that fragment Ms and Sony were quite foreseeable, I don't like to say it  but I'm expecting a lot more of serious support for move than for wii.

The Wii is tracking way over the PS2, which makes this gen pretty much fucked up since the 2nd and 3rd place consoles aren't much "dead" as Xbox and Gamecube were.

This gen may see the most sold 2nd and 3rd places, and 1st may set a new all time record for home consoles. Aiming at 150 million perhaps?

They actually build the engine from the ground up. Monster Hunter 3 hardly uses any assets from Monster Hunter on the PS2.

And the FFXIII example should be obvious: SE bet on the wrong horse with PS3, therefore they made the game multiplat because PS3 sales wouldn't cover their development costs.

Then why is FFXIII selling good on PS3 ? , while final fantasy games selling like crap on the Wii? heck even dissidia on PSP which is the most pirated game console ever sold more than both games on Wii.

Abysmal 3rd party support of Wii is due to complete lack of ability of above mentioned game developers to create software based on new values the Wii has to offer, that differ the console from HD twins. I don't know if either lack of talent or management flaws are resposible for their failures, but results are way below my personal expectations. The situation just shows that actual competition is about software development rather than hardware. Nintendo made a huge leap forward in last 6 years while a lot of 3rd parties were left behind.

Anyways, Nintendo will lend a helping hand to 3rd parties eventually by releasing their next home console at least comparable in raw specs with competition, and 3rd parties could get back to old paradigma of game developement they're used to. At least this way they won't disgrace themselves by creating tons of shovelware in attempt to make smth new.

I'm pretty sure being proud that a main series FF on one console outsell a spinoff of a spinoff on another console is an automatic admission of defeat

@ mai )

it's probably mainly lack of interest .. if you were a world class car designer what would you rather make, a compact car/SUV or a limousine/sports car hm?