It's a principled matter. Most of the publishers/developers i complain about make games that i really don't care for personally (mostly. I would've liked to see a Soul Calibur on Wii at any rate), but the question is why they're ignoring the market leader, something that is wrong.

One thing you have to consider is that Wii software minus permament bundles and including Wii Fit (because third parties could and have made compatible software) is about identical to both the PS3 and Xbox 360 software sales. So a third party can now consider the value of the software market on the DX9 consoles as twice the size in terms of numbers.

Beyond numbers you also have to consider how the software sells. On Xbox 360 and PS3 the average selling price for titles is something like $44 whereas on the Wii for third parties IIRC its $32 and the Xbox 360 and PS3 titles can have DLC to gather extra revenue on top of that. Furthermore the Xbox 360 / PS3 titles being front loaded mean that the developers make their money back very quickly at full price without discounts and it lowers the cost of distribution. Its quite possible that the value to the publishers on the Xbox 360 and PS3 is 3-4* greater than it is on the Wii.

Even if I grant all the stuff you said, Squilliam, I don't see it making a 37% difference into a 300% difference like you suggest. 

Whoa, I didn't expect there to be this much discussion and debate in this thread.  I thought it was going to be 50 replies that all just said "Both."

It's really just a case of them trying to pay their way out of the embarrassing fiasco that is admitting they've been wrong for years.  They thought the PS360 would be the next PS2, and they're not.  Now every single 3rd party is making chump change compared to what they actually made on the PS2 and could be making on the Wii, and it's driving them insane.

the reason why good games dont come to wii is because they still waiting for test results to come in from sales of light gun shooters.

Take an average sale price which is $37 for third party games (and dropping?) then consider you have a lot of games which sell fewer units and therefore find themselves in the higher royalty rate bracket. Then consider that a trickle of units every week (legs) is far more costly in terms of shipping and production than simply making 500,000 units and shipping them at once. Finally consider that as third parties they have double the total number of sales on the Xbox 360 and PS3 with PC sometimes as well, combined, at a faster rate, with a higher average sale price and with the opportunity for additional revenue from DLC. Since the variable costs are lower relative to the sale price it could be as high as 2- 300% of overal Wii revenue for FY2011.

Another answer, people are monkeys and monkeys are irrational.

http://www.ted.com/talks/laurie_santos.html

They are apt to take risks when it involves losses if it also includes the possibility to win big. Since the WIi doesn't offer that, they chose the HD consoles.

@Squilliam

I see you conveniently forgot to mention that Wii games cost less to develop than HD games.

hey thats a good reply lol

Actualy it's even worse for Wii than you suggest Squilliam. If you are making X360/PS3 game you can just as well make it PC/X360/PS3 game having another stream of income from more DLC and even if typicall price there is lower there is no platform owner tax and DD allows to bypass a lot of middleman.

interesting thread and i think it really just boils down to the fact that big AAA FPS / action games just wouldn't sell well on the wii.  The 3rd parties can't afford to risk that much money on a console whose known fanbase is 70% casuals who are simply not interested in a core game.  Trust me a game like Assassins creed on the Wii would flop.

Also whats with the hate on Pachter?  I'll never understand it, he is statistically proven to be the best video game predictor in the world and seems like a really nice fun guy.  I love the Pach!