http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5822&Itemid=2 

Activision Addresses Wii Third-Party Debate

By Kris Graft       

Activision is confident that third-party publishers can succeed on Nintendo platforms, as the company confirmed today it is “reinvesting” in Nintendo in a way that eclipses the publisher’s prior GameCube support.
Image“[There seems to be] a common misconception about first-party vs. third-party opportunities [on Nintendo platforms],” said Activision CEO Robert Kotick in a quarterly conference call.

There have been significant rumblings related to challenges third-parties face on Nintendo platforms. While Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime argues that third parties have enjoyed more success on the Wii than Nintendo itself, Nintendo-originated games seem to dominate software sales charts for Nintendo platforms, especially in past console cycles. In effect, some have said that consumers “only buy Nintendo hardware for Nintendo games,” leaving third-parties out in the cold.

However, Kotick said this is no longer the case, because the Wii is shaping up to be more successful than Nintendo’s last home console. “[GameCube] really became a non-strategic platform for us, and most of our development effort was focused on straight ports at low costs to leverage our franchises,” he said.

Kotick said that in the past, Nintendo had an advantage when developing for its own platforms. Now third-parties like Activision can use centralized technology to take better advantage of Nintendo hardware and produce games on par with Nintendo products. “For a few generations, Nintendo software was better than third-party software. When you look at where we are today…we think we’re actually in the best position and probably even in a better position than the first-party to leverage our development dollars.

“We’re reinvesting against the Nintendo platform in a way that in the last cycle we really did not.”

He also said that the company’s hit game Guitar Hero will be a Wii standout title. “There probably is no better product to take advantage of the capabilities of the Wii than Guitar Hero,” he said.

Here it is. The tide is shifting. Money talks and Bull Shannon walks. It never fails.

Get ready for Nintendomination as the kids say.

John Lucas 

There sure seems to be a lot of developers openly saying they are increasing Wii development. Off the top of my head Bandai, EA, Activision and Ubisoft have all made similar statements.

Wow, hot on the heels of the Ubisoft interview. EA care to step up? :)

EA bought an entire development studio for the purpose of developing Wii specific titles. Sooo I think they have.

Who hasn't, thus far? That interests me too. Konami, SquareEnix, and Capcom come to mind; although to be fair, a couple of these had said things that imply that Wii development will increase. Square said that they will devote themselves less heavily to Sony this time (indirectly stating that they will support Microsoft and Nintendo more), and Capcom never fully left Nintendo anyway (as evidenced by RE4, the RE4 Wii-make, and RE: Umbrella Chronicles).

The company that seems the most tepid about Nintendo, to me, is Konami. They have, to my knowledge, one game in development for the Wii -- Dewey's adventure.  It certainly looks fun, bu it's a low budget title produced by a second or third-tier development team. I've seen no evidence that they have any further interest in the system, although I could obviously be missing something. Does someone have evidence that I haven't seen? Honestly, I'd be curious.

 They also recently revealed that the EA game developed in conjunction with Steven Spielberg will be on the Wii. That's a big deal.

So we knew guitar hero III is coming to Wii anything else of significance here?

I give it a week tops before there is a sales thread where someone says "Wii is dominating but I dont see any of the third parties shifting anymore focus onto it! It will die out!"

Seriously. Over the last 7 months these types of articles have been everywhere. The writing is on the wall.