Ehh. The NES/SNES era, 3rd parties did good because Nintendo forced them never to multi-plat (which led to their desertion in the N64 era). Even then, I wouldn't say devs, on a wholesale level, did incredibly as well as their Nintendo counterparts. Why would so many titles be PC back then (atleast in the US) versus Nintendo systems? The console market for 3rd parties only really started to boom when Sony came along. Also, what's the highest selling 3rd party game of the NES and SNES era? Give me an answer so we can exactly see where the true power or 3rd parties lies.

A quick search reveals that there were 23 third party million sellers on NES, 25 on SNES, with Street Fighter II, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest taking many of the top spots.

Darq Requiem, can I just say that I LOVE your signature pic?

Good God that thing is hilarious! I saved that pic to my computer it was so funny.

Examples of 3rd party powersales on Nintendo systems include:

•The Mega Man series—both original and X (I should know I rented damn near every last one of 'em back in the day) (Capcom)

•The Castlevania series with the 2nd in the series mirroring the gameplay style shifts like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda (Konami)

VGChartz must be missing this data because I KNOW Castlevania sold some units back on the NES & SNES.

•The Final Fantasy series (Square)

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=final+fantasy&console=&publisher=Square&sort=Total

•The Double Dragon series (Technos)

•Capcom's Disney Afternoon titles—the classic Ducktales & Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=NES&publisher=Capcom&sort=Total

•The Contra series (Konami)

VGChartz needs some more info. I KNOW good and well Contra sold big on NES & SNES.

•Namco's titles in Japan including Famista Baseball series and Xevious

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=NES&publisher=Namco&sort=Total

•The Ghosts 'N' Goblins/Ghouls 'N' Ghosts series (Capcom)

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=ghosts&console=NES&publisher=&sort=Total

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=ghouls&console=SNES&publisher=&sort=Total

•Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest series (Enix)

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=dragon+quest&console=&publisher=&sort=Total

Hell, just check the all time lists for each console. Yes, Nintendo outsold everyone but it's their system. What do you expect? That doesn't mean that the others had no chance to make great sales.

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=NES&publisher=&sort=Total

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=SNES&publisher=&sort=Total

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=N64&publisher=&sort=Total

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=N64&publisher=&sort=Total

John Lucas

Saying that "Third party games dont do very well on Nintendo consoles" is largely misleading ...

Third party developers (on the whole) rejected the N64 and because of that most of the third party games on the N64 were not particularly good; at the same time Nintendo was focused on providing as many high quality Nintendo published games as possible through First and Second party development which made the situation worse for third parties.

This trend continued at a far lesser level on the Gamecube. The Gamecube's main problem was that Nintendo recieved very little exclusive content from third party developers and many of the games were ported to the Gamecube months after they were released on the XBox or PS2.

The "Third parties just can't compete with first party games" statement seems like it will be more aptly attributed to the PS3 this gen. Asside from FF and MGS, almost all the really big PS3 exclusive games are being made by Sony

Its looks like Erik and John saved me the trouble of pulling up numbers. Miyamoto pretty much said it a few months back. 3rd Parties can't expect to sell well on Nintendo platforms if they have third and fourth string development teams producing the games. They have to take advantage of the platforms strengths and produce quality games. 

For good or the bad, it's $ony's time to do what Nintendo was "forced" with Gamecube.

Rather false statement, there are plenty 3rd party games on the PS3 that will be as good if not better then Sonys own. GTA4, Assasins Creed, Unreal 3, MGS4, FF13 and Versus also all the best sports tites are 3rd party.

All 3 systems biggest best exclusives are first party, i sure as hell dont see anything 3rd party on the wii that has a snow balls chance in hell or rivaling Zelda Mario or Metroid.

I still see the PS3 as having this problem more than the PS1 or PS2 did. And like I said, most of the games you just mentioned are multiplat. I just don't see the PS3 getting very many major exlusive third party titles. And because of this, and because  of Sony's incredibly strong lineup - Lair, Resistence, Ratchet and Klank, Gran Tourismo, Kilzone 2, God of War and all those others we regularily talk about on this forum, and I see a console in which the first party publisher dominates overwhelmingly. 

Which would be fine if it was a major selling console with enough space to go around to everyone. Right now it's ok if the Wii is dominated by Nintendo, because by the looks of things, there'll still be ample sales and profits for everybody else, ala DS.

I see the PS3 being the console this gen that is bought mostly for Sony exclusives.