Ok, boatloads(bucketloads) was probably an exageration but it's sold 1.5 million-ish between the two versions and is still featuring prominently in the charts which suggests it's going to continue to sell for a little while to come. 

 I can't speak to the commercials as i'm in China and we don't have TV's here;P but surely with that amount of sales to date they would already be looking at quite a reasonable profit.  Certainly no where near the profit of DMC3 but that is a feature of games this generation in general, particulary with regard to the HD consoles.  

Of course this all depends on what the game's budget was....anybody have any idea?

Not a chance, it would have to be totally rebuilt from the ground up. The wii is a WONDEFUL system and very innovative with a lot of great games, but I think a lot of people truly don't understand the difference in processing & graphical power between the wii & the 360/ps3.

"The question as i see it is whether the down-graded graphics or changed controls would have such an adverse effect on the game that it would simply not be worth porting to or playing on the Wii."

I think the sentence in the original post was:

"with a little downgrading "

And no you couldn't bring this game on the Wii "with a little downgrading", at least not at the current development level. I don't know which videos the poster saw but this game looks awesome (plays ok). There are simply no Wii games with this realistic look that even come close.
With a lot downgrading you could of course put it on the Wii. You can see approximately how it would look by playing Devil May Cry 3.

Funny how you all seem to know what the Wii's limits are. [/sarcasm]

And it would not have to be totally rebuilt. Most downgraded ports are rebuit for the system, like RE4. Capcom basically stated they had to redo the ENTIRE engine to fit around the PS2. And the difference is irrelevant. Without texture compression, they could NOT port the difference. They had to port the WHOLE game.

Yet it STILL cost a fraction of a full PS2 game. Why, because half the work was done.

Sure a Wii game would need redrawn textures, but they would be redrawn based off the already finished art, not from the HD models. Same with the polygon count.

And if they had to reduce some of the scale, due to less AI or shorter draw distance, they would do it. It's not that hard to decide you need 6 enemies in a room instead of 10 or 12. You just adjust the challenge accordingly.

Now this is not proof games are coming, just showing that you overestimate the work on a downgraded port. 

"Funny how you all seem to know what the Wii's limits are."

I think we all make educated guesses taking into account what currently is available for the Wii. And in this regard Third-party games until now look pretty similar to the PS2 (often ports but also dedicated games), Nintendo is doing some great stuff but mostly through a cartoonish art style. "Realistic" Nintendo games like Metroid look a bit better than Third-party but not by much.


"Most downgraded ports are rebuit for the system, like RE4"

??? Downgraded portS? RE4 was a Gamecube game so if they had to downgrade anything the situation would be pretty dire. At the moment there are almost NO ports of games that do not also have a PS2 version. So essentially developers do the work twice once for 360/PS3/PC and once for PS2/wii.

I lol'd at all of those saying that DMC4 doesn't look too good to be ported to the Wii. It's obvious that you haven't spent a minute playing the game, because the game is a visual marvel, very beautiful, and looks better than probably even the most graphically impressive Wii games. There is no "so-so textures" or anything like that.

I know the game is more detailed than the OP says, but "too good" for the Wii? I am so sick of that crap. 

And to lower the enemies on screen, to lower the resolutions, to gimp the textures, to lower the polygon count, to reduce the enemy AI....BLAH!  IT'S NOT THE SAME FREAKING GAME AT THAT POINT!  It's like comparing Call of Duty 4 on the DS to that of the 360, just not quite as extreme...ps2 games are not the same as 360 games even when "it's the same game"....they are the same game, but they AREN'T EVEN CLOSE.  I'm not disrespecting the Wii at all.  I love it.  I'm just saying that you're comparing a mule to a race horse.  Look at the hardware specs...that's all you need to see.

It can be done, but it's not the same game.

Maybe a better comparison is the upcoming Ghostbusters game...look at the wii version and then look at the ps3/360 version.  They are doing the Wii version completely separately and differently.  Why?  And don't say it's to adapt for the motion controls...that's BS denial.  The reason they are doing a completely different build is because they would have to so gimp a port that it wouldn't be recognizable as the same game.  People would scream about "lazy" developers.  The wii has it's strengths, but that doesn't mean it can keep up with the 360/ps3 games.  The wii has its own unique and entertaining games and advantages.  Let it have those in peace.