Heavily rumored to be in trouble? Jeeze Bod it was an off coment in EGM. If we believed EGM rumors Viva Pinata would be on the Wii and we sould be playing FFVII remake on the PS3 right now. Also, they have 2 FFCC games, including one for Wii Ware on the Wii. I'm not saying this qualifies as major effort yet, but the early effort certainly makes it unlikely they'll miss the boat later. Especially when their first game (DQ:S) a crappy spinoff managed to sell .5 million in Japan alone.

Chocobo's Dungeon is actually a franchise. It has been for a decade. There is a DS game of the same nature as well. I don't really want to get into semantics about what a "spinoff franchise" is but both FFCC and Chocobo's Dungeon are their own franchises. I expect KH3 to be on the Wii anyway, but that's really speculation at this point since production on that game won't even begin for another year or so.

Going through each 3rd party individually:

Square Enix: 2 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles games, Chocobo's Dungeon, and Dragon Quest Swords. So 3 games in 2 minor franchises and one spin-off. Not a stellar step yet, but certainly showing willingness to experiment with success on the Wii, and they have acheived success on their first game (DQ:S) with .5 million in Japan alone.

Konami: Dewy's Adventure, DDR Hottest Party, Elebits, MLB Power Pros, and Wii Fitness (their attempt to clone Wii Fit). Again, nothing particularly impressive in there except MLB Power Pros. That's actually the best Baseball game released in years and is around 85.4% on Gamerankings. So, not AAA quality, but not bad. There is certainly hope for them in the future.

Capcom: No question of Wii support at all. Their largest franchise in Japan, Monster Hunter, was moved to a Wii exclusive. Zack & Wiki may not have been expensive to make but it's very high quality, and they were kind enough to price it at $40. Resident Evil 4 Wii upgraded everything in the PS2 version including the graphics (albiet to the GC standard) implemented a control scheme perfectly, and then to top it off was priced at a great budget price of $30. The same is being done with Okami. You can complain that these are ports, but they are ports of 2 of the best games of the last generation, and they are being priced reasonably, and will be successful for that reason.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is a spinoff, but it's not cheap or crappy. There is a massive amount of content in it. We Love Golf is their attempt to make an "Everybody's Golf" for the Wii, and again they have clearly put some effort into it. Clearly they are willing to shift some effort to Wii development. They already have in a reasonable amount.

Namco Bandai: Their investment isn't really in question either. With Tales of Symphonia: KoR, Sword of Legendia, Fragile, and Space Station Tycoon they are giving it a good shot with one of their biggest franchises (Tales) and making a new (non cash-in) franchise with Fragile.

Marvelous: Harvest Moon goes pretty much everywhere usually, but this generation it appears to only be on the Wii. They also have the new IP in King Story, which represents a very large and ambitious undertaking with many developers. Oboro Muramasa Youtouden is the sequel to the incredible PS2 game Odin Sphere. There are rumors of a Rune Factory hitting Wii too. Marvelous seems more commited to the Wii than any developer as the vast majority of their big games are on the system. Shouldn't be any issues with this developer.

Tecmo: If you asked me what Tecmo's biggest franchise is after Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden I would tell you Fatal Frame. Fatal Frame 4 is a very big deal from Tecmo. Not only is it one of their bigger franchises, but the PS3 and 360 versions were canceled for a Wii version instead. Add to that the fact that they hired Grasshopper Studios for this (not cheap!), and you are looking at a major project from them. A couple crappy golf games don't mean much, but there is certainly hope for this developer on the Wii. Especially when they are willing to put a game like Ninja Gaiden on the DS.

Sega: Their first big game was Sonic and the Secret Rings, which was very successful and was certainly not a cash-in. The graphics are still among the best on the Wii. Super Monkey Ball was decent too and is one of their bigger franchises. NiGHTS 2, a new Samba de Amigo, and Mario & Sonic all represent decent development efforts as well. The future of their games is unclear, but there are certainly positive signs of them spending development effort on the system.

Ubisoft: Their 2 first games were Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids. They may not have been the best games ever, but they weren't cheap, and they were both very successful. Red Steel 2 was confirmed (basically) in a Nintendo Power a while back with online play, and Ubisoft recently promised they were going to be making "Nintendo quality" games on the Wii in 2008. Even admitting that their first year games were not up to that standard. That certainly sounds like a commited developer.

Midway: Nothing but crap, but their recent financials (before the flops of Stranglehold and Blacksite) showed them to be near going under. UT3 sales are reportedly crappy too. They won't survive the generation.

EA: Well, EA is EA and a lot of their games will be crappy, but that doesn't mean they aren't willing to invest in the Wii. Spore on Wii is a very big deal. So is Stephen Spielburg's game Blocks. These represent signifficant investments in the little white box. Of course the Wii will continue to recieve Madden and other sports games. Medal of Honor Heroes 2 was decent, and the Wii continues to get all the standard milked franchises from EA.

Activision: There wasn't going to be a Wii version of GH3 initially. Deciding to make one was obviously them giving up and throwing in their cards, and it achieved great results! The Wii version has the potential to outsell even the 360 version with the legs it's had. Just like EA the Wii is getting all their milked franchises. Activision's commitment remains to be seen, but they are off to a decent start.

Rockstar: Table Tennis was crap, but Manhunt 2 showed some interest in the console. It's also interesting that their Bully remake is going to be on the 360 and the Wii but not the PS3. There is certainly opportunity here for some major titles.

Bioware: Now part of EA, and it's very likely that their games will be much less exclusive than they were before the merger (expect Mass Effect on PC). They have shown the desire to branch out into family games with their development of Sonic RPG on the DS. The Wii is certainly a possible avenue for them.

Epic: Mark Rein has repeatedly attacked the Wii and the chances are slim to none. The company lives off graphics anyway.

Valve: This may come as a surprise, but I think it's very possible for Valve to create a major Wii game. Gabe Newell has made a point of saying the Wii is the only next gen system, and also pointed out that it interests him greatly and he loves his own Wii, saying he uses it more than his 360 and PS3 combined. I really think Valve could end up putting out a big Wii game at some point.

Third parties will not miss the Wii boat. If we look at what Nintendo has accomplished with the DS and The Wii, what we will find is that Nintendo has been able to reach a new audience, the casual gamer. These gamers have been willing to spend money on games, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing Wild World, New Super Mario Brothers, Mario Party 8, The Brain Training Games and Wii Sports. All of these games have sold extremely well and some have set the world of fire. Publishers and Developers have seen this and want to reach out to the casual gamer.

But the problem is that most of the developers do not know how to make casual games. An article posted on this site by the Source was an Interview with a former Microsoft employee. In that Interview he stated that Microsoft was looking for a developer to make a platformer for the Xbox/Xbox 360 and found out that developers do not know how to make those types of games anymore. Sega has not been able to successfully bring Sonic back to the level of popularity that he had back in the 2D days.

Secondly, Publishers are asking developers to make games that they’ve never made before. Look at the games that Ubisoft normally produces and publishes. Now think about them asking a developer who normally makes First or third person shooters to make a platformer or a puzzle game. This is the major reason why the Wii has so much casual crap, like Jenga, BaByz, and other stuff. It is not easy to develop puzzle games, platformers, point and click adventures, pet sims and etc.

However, developers will not be deterred. The casual gamer is attracting all developers Ubisoft, EA, Activision, Atari, Namco, Konami, and Square-Enix. It’s only a matter of time before other developers decide to venture into the casual realm.

You are sort of missing the point patjuan. The DS was launched on casual games, but it has a far stronger core game 3rd party support than the PSP as well. In fact, comparing the PSP 3rd party support to the DS 3rd party support is like comparing the Gamecube to the PS2.

What Nintendo is making with the Wii isn't a casual only system. Just like what they made with the DS wasn't a casual only system. What they are making is a system for ALL gamers. They want both casual and core to play on one system, and they seem to be succeeding in that. They certainly were successful with the DS.

Great analogy naznatips!!  Now I've nothing to add. 

I think that, saved Capcom (maybe), every third party publishers will miss the Wii boat.

And to me, that's not a matter of efforts or creativity.

Even if some games aren't that good, third parties actually put some decent titles on the table (Dewy, Zak & Wiki, Rayman, Table Tennis, Mercury Meltdonw, Trauma Center, Sonic...). On any console, they would do decent sales, and on a console as strong as the Wii, you would even expect good sales.
But they all kind of bomb, one after another.
On the one hand probably because casual are just happy with Wiisport, Wiiplay, and soon WiiFit.
On the other hand because gamers are into Nintendo's hits, just like with the N64 and the GC.

So the question is : once PS2 (and its easy port to the Wii) is gone, how many studios are going to take the risk to develop on the Wii ?

Konami will be the last major one.

The risk was for developers to be making games at launch. Only Ubisoft could see Wii's potential for success.

Most people everywhere thought it was Nintendo's last gasp. How many "Nintendo should get out of the console market and make games for other systems and sell handhelds" threads were there on the Internet 18 months ago.

Now, people are playing catch-up. There is a mixed bag out there. Some are good, some are entertaining, some are garbage.

If you look at it, Capcom is providing good games. EA is trying and introducing new IPs (just not always good ones). Sega has made decent Sonic games (more than it has for other systems). 2K is giving some goodies (and the more that I play other collections, the better that game gets). Activision did release GH3 and now may be ready to do more. Namco, SE, Konami and Techmo have done things. Midway has tried (and failed -- they can't even do skiball animals smoothly in Game Party and their own Crusn' trailer looks bad). And Ubisoft continues to support.

There will be MORE third-party support as long as there are more consoles. Everyone thought the Wii would fall of the end of the earth, not orbit it in sales. Plans will -- and are -- changing.

Now to the question at hand. Konami needs to pea or get off the pot. Activision, Namco and Techmo need to do more. SE needs to stop insulting the system. And Midway needs to close.

Mike from Morgantown

KONAMI

All i can see that Wii software is doing great all around the globe. Any 3rd party dev would be dumb not to take advantage of Wii - cheap dev and decent sales. Every day it's more clear that Wii ain't a fad. Too bad that some devs like Epic will miss it. If they somehow ported UT3 engine to Wii, even if it's totally stripped down, they would make millions on licences now...

It will be a slow struggle.

But with 360 having no market in Japan and a large number of PS3 owners buying it just as a cheap Blu-Ray player, World Wide software sales will be that of the Wii eventually.

Nintendo's biggest hurdle now is that of product production. Software too. Guitar Hero III is arguably the best selling on the Wii, however production of it is far less than the PS2 and 360 versions which have always been the big sellers.