The other problem most 3rd party developers seem to have is coming up with a unique gaming format idea that revolutizes and creates a new format. Nintendogs and Brain Training are examples of this on the DS. And look how many they sold. Versus most of the 3rd party are movies, TV shows, PC games modded over.
The only one that shows ANY imagination is Majestco's Cooking Mama. 1.84M in sales, and I imagine a nice little profit maker for them.
True, they can't make the war&sport games as picture perfect on the Wii, but is that all the 3rd party developers can see?

@ leo-j - companies care about sales not attach rates

I think some would argue against "similar" as in "a Wii game costs 1/4 to 1/2 as much as a similar PS3 or XBox 360".   Still SMG which may or may not reach Halo's numbers, definitely costed less, and thus if sales are close, profits in SMG > Halo's.

Still, to make $2M back on a game is a LOT easier than to make $30M, even if it doesn't have as many sales.

 Attach rates are flawed data anyway. The only useful conclusion you can derive is how deeply individual games have penetrated. The total games / total consoles attach rate is worthless.

 If you look at monthly software market share / console market share (userbase), all the consoles are within 20% of each other. Though it usually does work out to 360 > PS3 > Wii, the absurd 2:1 ratio disappears.

 As for 3rd parties taking the Wii seriously, expect a lot of announced projects this year, with releases starting in 2009. I know the waiting game is lame, but these things do take time.

Allow me to clarify. I would like to see third party companies make big budget games for the Wii like Call of Duty 4. It doesn't have to be a FPS or an open world game. It could be a game like Katamari Damacy (sp). It would be nice to see third parties actually putting a lot of their effort and resources into making a high quality Wii game.

I say never. Nintendo will have to rely on good 1st and 2nd party games, which could be better than it sounds for most.
Which do people want? Crappy ports or solid Ninty inhouse?

When a game like Mario Party 8 is kicking Metroid Prime 3's ass it's not hard to figure out why the Wii is getting the kind of games it is. Seriously what incentive is there for third parties to make more expensive hardcore games for the Wii when they can put out something like Carnival Games and make a tidy profit?

Wii Play has more sales than Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess combined. If Wii Sports had been sold seperately in all regions it would very likely have had better sales than Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and Red Steel COMBINED. That should make is very clear why the Wii is getting the low budget casual stuff.

As for the big budget hardcore games, why would a publisher choose the Wii over multi-platform development on the PC/360/PS3 which has already shown it can move a lot of copies if a hardcore game if it's good. Is there any third party games on the Wii expected to sell 5+ million like they expect Assassin's Creed to eventually move? What about the 4-5+ million for Call of Duty 4?

Sorry buy anyone who thinks that the Wii is suddenly going to get a lot of hardcore games as opposed to the 360/PS3/PC next year or the year after needs to take a reality check.

@ Leo-J...

One could argue about the fact that multiplatform games aren't selling at the same rate as the X360 versions whilst Wii has a userbase (Wii's multiplatform titles mostely outsell the PS3's, sometimes not by much and rarely not) of 17+ million compared to the X360's 15 mil and the PS3's 8 mil.

But the fact is that dev-costs are much lower on Wii. Providing the security for developers to gain a profit of the title. As such, devs will be satisfied with 'only' ~say 200k sales Ww for the same game opposed to the 350-500k for the X360 or PS3. This given provides alot of cash-ins and crap ports to get some extra profits but those who make sure they put effort in their Wii version mostely get repaid:

GH3.

Lego Star Wars.

Rayman raving rabbits.

Tiger Woods PGA 07.

Etc...

For the rest. It all comes down to totals sold. Wii is selling at a monster-rate a.t.m and it is likely it will continue this pase throughout 08. With the Wii already being in the lead and the system set to break salerecord after salerecord it is inevitable that good 3th party games will come. (Monster hunter 3, tales of games mainly on Wii and DS, Red Steel 2, Zack and Wiki, RE etc...)

As such, Wii will get a software line-up similar to that of the PS2 (Lots of cheap cash-ins combined with casual stuff with enough gems and AAA-titles between those by big publishers to provide the Hardcore fans in their needs. Only difference is the Nintendo games which Sony didn't have the last 2 gens...)...

Ports don't have to be crappy. RE4 and Godfather are quite nice, and I expect Okami and Bully will also be very fun.

Your point is well taken, though. 3rd party support is less important when you have possibly the largest developer in the world making exclusives for your platform.

Smarter companies care about growing profits, not sales.