I've made a note of that in my origanal post. However, I'm pretty sure wiiplay still comes with a controller and if not, it and wii sports probably sell for around 10 USD. I'm not saying their sells shouldn't be counted, but they do sku the numbers a bit.

Nope, Wii Sports sells for pretty close to full price. It's 4,605 yen on Amazon, which is slightly above $43 US.

! really? I wouldn't spend more then 20 on that game.

haha, that's nuts. Eitherway, like I said, even with those 2 games in the mix, the ratio still it's that good.

man, I think nearly every person has defended the wii but nothin for the ps3 or psp. No main page love for those two. haha.

Though, like I said, the main point of this post (and it even says in the title), is that japan is an unstable market for japan based developers who aren't nintendo (or aren't making games for the ds). Can anyone honestly, AFTER THINKING CAREFULLY about it, really argue that fact?

The DS has heavily introduced on the home console market in Japan.


As for attachment rates, it's only been out for a year. Attachment rates increase throughout the life of the console. The current 3:1 will be 4 or 5:1 next year and so on.


It should also be noted that 3rd party developers were caught with their pants down by the Wii. Game development begins a year or two before the game is released and most developers/publishers put most of their efforts into the upcoming PS3. Because the PS3 eats up so much development resources, not much was left for Wii and because they didn't anticipate it to sell so well, they had allocated even less resources for it.

Now that it's a hit, developers/publishers have reallocated their resources appropriately (read: Capcom moving Monster Hunter 3 to Wii for example). Because development time takes a year or two, we won't see this shift until later this year.

DS development costs are very low. There are probably many games that don't have large sales but are quite profitable. Wii games have relatively low development cost as well, so games could have healthy profits even with lower sales.

 Yep. First you made a stealth "3rd parties can't compete with Nintendo" argument. Then you made a stealth "the games aren't next-gen" argument. Add in a little Wii Sports bashing. You brush aside the success on the DS and ignore the ongoing market for PS2 software. You only use the attach ratio when it suits your argument. Mix. Stir. Rinse. Repeat. Whatever.

Is Japan a quirky, unique market? Absolutely. It's always been that way. I don't think anyone would dispute that.

The reason why everyone has been responding is that your other points just don't make much sense. Yes, the Wii's attach rate will look bad if you remove its top two selling games. (The 360 has - by far - the best attach rate in Japan, to give you another indication of just how much that's worth.) If Japanese third-party developers have been struggling, maybe it's because they've been focusing on the least-profitable platforms with the smallest insall bases.

There´s no big JRPG yet. (360 has some, but yeah)

Biggest that comes close is Dragon Quest Swords, which sold pretty well for a spin off.
Tales of Symphonia releases somewhre next month, that should show us a little more.

@ fkusumot

Saying wii sports isnt worth $43 isn't bashing. It has the tech of an N64 game with neato controls. Hey, I like the game, I have it, I play it with my family. But $43?

and zelda, mario party, paper mario, and donkey knog were all ports. I say that not because they aren't good (zelda and paper mario are great games) but because people tend to think of nintendo as this amazing force that only makes amazing games and never cuts corners. I'M NOT BASHING NINTNDO. I OWN A WII AND 4 NINTENDO PUBLISHED GAMES. I'M saying the attachment rates in japan are crap. And they are crap. Compare them to the US or anyone else.

I not brushing aside the ds, ive noted it's sales several times, but is in the exception. And the ps2 did have great sales, and a great attachment ratio, and continues to do well, but since it is last gen, it's not the focus of most developers.

And still no one stands up for the psp or ps3. I swear, I feel like everyone over looks the topic and just tries to point me out as an anti wii basher who happens to own a wii. THE TOPIC ISN'T about the wii. IT's ABOUT ATTACHMENT RATES FOR 3 of the 5 major next gen consoles and how they're weak in japan and how that's sure to scare many japanese based developers who aren't nintendo. Nintendo doesn't need quality to sell. I'M NOT saying they don't have quality games, THEY MAKE PLENTY of quality games, but games like mario party 8 and mario and sonic prove that you don't always need quality, sometimes you just need the word 'mario' and that puts non nintendo developers at a disadvantage on the wii.