The Wii's main problem in this area, I believe, is simply imagne.  All the adverts, branding, etc. for the Wii is about family games.  Period.  I've never seen any branding or adverts or any positioning that say - adult or hardcore games.

Technically, the Wii's as capable of supporting such titles as any other platform, but it has a huge disadvantage (relative to its install base) by owner demographic.

My wife, for example, doesn't bat an eyelid at mature games on PS3/360 but basically dislikes the idea of them on Wii and doesn't want us to have mature titles in the house.  The Wii is for the family, for fun, not for playing adult games after the kids have gone to bed.

Now of course, with an install base of 80 million there is certainly a slice of owners up for such titles, but I really think they're in the minority vs those who bought a Wii based on its branding for family games, Wii Fit, etc.

At this point the Wii, I believe, will never escape this branding.

It can support mature titles.  But it'll never see a mature title sell anywhere like they can on the HD consoles.

On the flip side, and I believe backing this up, it's pretty obvious that the HD consoles are unlikely to see a family title sell anything like they can on the Wii.  This may change with Kinect/Move of course, which is part of the reason for their existence - particularly Kinect.

The Wii though has no such easy get out IMHO.  It's whole world conquering image that has driven it to 80 million does not allow it.

Hard to say, since budget disclosure is so rare among the gaming industry.

I was more referring to a home console.
I am excited about 3DS, but I don't play hardcore games on handhelds anyway.  I actually really like the DS the way it already is-- Professor Layton, Ace Attorney, Zelda, New Super Mario Bros, etc.  When I want to play an immersive game with good graphics I go straight to the console. 

World at War had specific Wii advertising, and all the Black Ops commercials I've seen seem to be platform neutral.

For NBA Jam, why do you say HD versions when you ignore the 360 version?  Also 240% more than 27,507 is 93,523.  Not to mention it was supposed to be a stripped down download that came with NBA Elite 11 up until about a month before it released.  But to be fair, the lead up of what features would be in what was a mess for both versions of the game.

No More Heroes.  Once again you ignored the 360, which normally wouldn't mean much in Japan.  However, it was the uncensored version, and that had a very noticable impact on sales.  Plus it is a late port on systems with much smaller install bases, and it sold more than the sequel on the Wii.

As for Madworld, keep in mind that the price collapsed fairly quickly and sharply.  So while the conduit might not have sold as much, it seems like the price has held up much better than Madworld.  Similar case to Mirror's Edge where it sold 2 million, but didn't do great because the price dropped to $20 less than a month after release.

I didn't realise about the WoW commercials, but every BlOps commercial I've seen says "only for 360 and PS3 on", some of which don't eve acknowledge the Wii version!

Honestly. it depends on the specific genre/game. To say that Wii can or cannot sell "core" or "mature" games is stupid. If every CoD game till the last one has been handicapped on the Wii, obviously the CoD fanbase will be on PS360. All those small new IPs, if they're not attempting to directly steal from a PS360 fanbase, will almost certainly sell better on Wii than on the PS3 or 360, simply because of the larger base.

And they'll definitely make more profit.

True. But still, perhaps the Wii can, somehow, turn things around, if Nintendo wanted it...

if it can be done so swiftly with the 360, then Nintendo could swoop in, steal some of its consumers with heavy advertsising and pull it out of the "blue ocean"

As you say, however, there are countless good mature games for the Wii, however, its reputation muddies its sales and any new potential projects. I expect this to change with the SUPERWii however!

It is, but I'd guess

Xenoblade-£9 million

The Last Story- £12 million

(Typical Wii game- £7 million)

(Typical HD game- £16-20 million)

These are all just guesses, but likely in the right area

If you have an interest in M-rated games, you'll try to get to play the best there is. That definitely isn't on the Wii and it's for reasons that go beyond graphical and online limitations: Nintendo doesn't make M-rated games and third parties don't put their best teams on Wii games in general, so what you can buy in terms of M-rated games on the Wii is limited to at best second rate titles, but usually worse.

Short, succinct and straight to the point. If you can grasp the basic idea outlined above, you won't have to wonder why, out of the three current generation home consoles, M-rated games sell the worst on the Wii despite its clear installed base advantage.