How is not supporting the platform that delivers the biggest success for them giving them integrity?

Unless they're signing a contract with Nintendo saying that they're only going to make bad games that they don't want and start following unethical business practices, then there's no such thing as integrity.

Learn to realize your fanboy bias does not ethics make.

Bodhesatva, you are correct, third party companies are pretty much afraid of the Wii. They expected it to fail, hate the change in game culture it presents, and Sony gave them a much bigger (console-wide) marketshare to swim in (ie Sony First Party

Yeah, I read this on GAF but I think he is full of **** so I didn't bother posting it.

All I want from codemasters is Micro Machines on the VC.

*Slightly edited* 

You make a good point there Bod (do you mind if i call you Bod?), but i think this attitude was expected by nintendo any way. The thing is, most of the industry have had opinions like this about nintendo for the last 15 years. And why not, sony would give money to these companies to make exclusives so would microsoft, its clear nintendo do not operate in this way.

heres a quote from an interview ign had with Iwata in july 2005

'Finally, Iwata spoke on the Revolution's unique interface and if it would alienate third-party developers.

"Well, of course, the idea is that the Revolution will sell and sell and sell so it becomes the standard in the industry," Iwata mused. "However, at least for the launch period, we designed the controller so it can play any of the different conventional styles. After all, we are talking about it playing games from our past machines (i.e. the virtual console). So don't worry.", http://uk.cube.ign.com/articles/636/636350p1.html

(Now here's my Theory)

And should Wiimote and obviously the Wii become the standard, which is looking like it will, Nintendo will be the top dog, of this industry again! That obviously scares a lot of these third parties, they don't want any company, especially Nintendo having such dominance. The truth is the way the HD consoles are looking, they don't seem to be able to sustain the markets they are in , with the exception from a few games, too mutch money is being lost, a lot of games are just clones and hybrids of previos games. It seems like its the turn of the smaller publishers and devlopers to come in and usher a new age.

 And thats exactly whats going to happen, publisher who are big today can very possibly die tomorrow, and smaller publishers today could be tomorrows juggernauts. Some bigger companies will still remain, but at that point they will have no choice but to depend on Nintendo's platform. It practacally happened to the DS (EA don't even make PSP games anymore).

Yup. I think it's a general fear of change. I mean, every generation we're supposed to double the graphics and shine our hardcore trophies. Now Nintendo says nuts to that, try this new controller!

It's a huge change in gaming culture that companies aren't ready for. All a customer has to do is try Wii Sports for 10 minutes to see what the Wii represents. Meanwhile a company has to start a Wii development branch, slow down HD game development, and publish Wii Shovelware (because they wouldn't put their good developers on a Wii game) for a year or so. It's such a huge change I'm sure some publishers would rather play it straight and simply hope the Wii fails.

I would go even farther than that. I want you to look at this thread: 

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=13273

If you combine the net income of all the top 15-20 major third parties over the last 6 months, the total comes to -458 million dollars.

It's really shocking to see that and then see these companies refuse to change in this environment. Compare this to Nintendo's ~1.2 billion dollars in profit, for instance. You say ignoring the Wii could have significant consequences. I'd say, if the market continues in a remotely similar fashion for even 2-3 years, we'll see profound and extensive redistribution of the market place. Nintendo could swallow the market whole.

Simple question for someone who knows more about financial trends than I do: how long can a market have one company make profoundly more profit than the rest of the industry combined, and not have that market distort dramatically around the profitabl company? How long before that company consumes the entire industry? 

I like how you think it's not okay to for developers to blindly follow the money, but then it's okay to blindly ignore Nintendo's succes. It's good to diversify, they'll be in a lot of trouble if they put all their eggs in one basket.

Your second paragraph is hilarious. When did that become common sense? I just told my co-worker that and he said "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Novelty product? Are you still in 2006? I see you yourself does not believe in Nintendo's success, maybe you should look at their financial reports and compare them to Sony's and MS's.

Yup. My only major fear is that Nintendo becomes the only profitable company. It would easily control the entire industry again and promote very restricted policies that are no longer needed these days. Now, Yamauchi is out and Iwata is in charge now, but who knows what the future holds?

(oop, my shift is up!) See you in an hour.

Software sales on Nintendo consoles has been dominated by first party games for the last two gens, because the install base has been too small for third parties to bother.

This isn't rocket surgery, and people who deal with games with a living should be able to figure it out.