Where did you get that ? Every serious trade paper and every interview I've ever heard from a developer has indicated that developing for the Wii costs about half as much.

It pays to do a little research. Third party developers aren't that reluctant and costs are a fraction:

One of the things we like about that platform is the development coOne of the things we like about that platform is the development costs...on the Wii are nowhere near what they are on the PS3 and Xbox 360.Farrell also talked about developing for the Wii as opposed to the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, noting that it was far less expensive making games for Nintendo's console. Farrell prefaced his comments by noting that he wasn't "a development professional," but he said the development environment for the Wii was similar to the GameCube's. "[The Wii] wasn't a whole new programming environment," Farrell said. "So we had a lot of tools and tech that work in that environment. So those costs--and again, I hate these broad generalizations--but they could be as little as a third of the high-end next-gen titles... Maybe the range is a quarter to a half."
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6149154.html 

Nintendo's Wii console may not wow you with its graphics, but it may be getting more third-party support than previous Nintendo consoles thanks to its cheap cost of development. Developing Wii games is expected to cost less than half on what it takes to build a PS3 or 360 title
.http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/cost-of-development-greatly-favors-wii-say-publishers/69714/?biz=1 

DB: I won’t tell you the cost of the games, I’m just giving you ballpark numbers. Wii development is easily one fourth, one fifth, even one sixth of some 360, PS3 projects, and those projects are easier to sell to developers, and they’re also a shorter timeframe to get the game out. I mean, our development on Mushroom Men is eighteen months.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-in/news_index.php?story=18247 

Majesco praises Wii development costs. Publisher intends to capitalise on cheaper Nintendo system Publisher Majesco has praised the lower development costs of Nintendo's Wii console, and intends to refocus its business to take advantage of the system's potential. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/majesco-praises-wii-development-costs 

Development costs a quarter to half compared to PS3/360 Ubisoft's Red Steel game for Wii will incur a development cost of approximately $12.75 million, according to a report by JeuxFrance.com. Red Steel is being readied to launch alongside the Wii later this year. According to its developers, the game will have approximately 13 hours of play time.Wii is considered to be the cheapest next-generation console to develop for. In May, THQ president Brian Farrell estimated Wii development costs are in the range of a quarter to half of that required for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 development. What does this mean for developers? A game such as Red Steel could cost them between $24 - $48 million on PS3 or 360.

http://www.n-sider.com/newsview.php?type=story&storyid=2337 

There were a lot more but I think you'll get the trend here.

To make a new game on a new engine would cost half as much. To make a sequel on an engine that has already been paid for in a previous game? I would say that the costs are much lower, maybe not exactly equal but they are much lower than the figures quoted for the first games in series. - programming time, art assets, design work has already been half fleshed out. For example Lord of the Rings would have been expensive as one movie, but it was quite cheaply made as three.

You also have to consider that considerable money can be paid if you have the right IP to make exclusive for one console or another, this can divest a lot of the risks involved. You also have to consider that it is much less risky to develop a sequel than a new IP.

Kojima said he wanted to make a Wii game, so did Valve and so did EA. Between XNA, Wiiware, the PC markets smaller developers and other up and comers you would probably have your best bets for good games. Why would the larger developers change when their business model is working successfully. In such a situation, a wait and see approach would probably make the most sense strategicly. This is about chicken and egg for the big developers and publishers and the egg hasn't hatched yet. When the games sell well then they will make more. I think on the biggest games for Wii thread most of the developers were names I wasn't familiar with, so they are probably small agile studios which are the ones you want since they can be the most innovative.

@Squillian

If you replace every instance where you mention the Wii with 360/PS3 and vice versa, then your posts become correct.

Most backwards posts ever!

Actually most of the huge costs portrayed for games were the initial builds with new engines and learning the consoles. Remember Epic put out gears of war II in 12 months and the major costs were already paid for with the first game.

 Ok heres some numbers. The top ten new IP franchises on the HD consoles (Non 1st party) (Mainly xbox btw) earned $160,000,000 in revenue at stores. For the Wii, non 1st party new IP games came to $39,000,000. I haven't even added the PC revenue either.

If the Wii games cost $8 million and the HD console games cost $30 million they still made more money. Now for the sequels to these games you won't be pulling the team off to do Wii games. You can easily halve the cost by reusing the engine/assets of the old game to help make the new.

Thats the reason why you won't be getting all the best third party development teams based on reputation. Until they see results, like a huge third party game they won't take the risk. Their talents are better spent on HD consoles anyway from a risk/reward point of view.

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My whole jist = The big third party developers will stay where they are because of the huge revenues they can earn on PC/360/PS3 games for the most part. Until third party new IP games take off on the Wii that is. You don't risk your best talent like that.

My other point I wanted to make, The Wii is going to pick up a lot of developer traffic due to the popularity and cheapness of the games to make. There are a lot of 10-30 man development teams that are hard at work making the creative, innovative and groundbreaking games you want. Most of them will fail by the standards here, such is the risk for developers trying new things. You could call that shovelware, I just think of them as games that went wrong. If you truely want innovative games, then out of this group you will find a few that really rise to the surface and surprise you. Those developers will grow and you'll probably have 3-9 new developers by the end of the generation that consistantly produce good work.

Don't underestimate the HD development market, when its Wii vs PC/360/PS3 the latter will port between themselves so they can be considered as one whole. The Wii is a valuable and great player in the market just accept Nintendos decision to divorce itself from the HD crowd along with the pros AND cons.  

@squilliam Seriously dude, you can't convince me. I've been around video games long enough to know when someone is trying to feed me a line. Good luck in your endeavor though.

COD5 is coming to (Wii & PS2) (360, PS3 & PC) and (DS). There will be different baselines. It would be a big mistake, if developers make PS360 games with a Wii baseline. This would mean upcoming games will be like 360's first year crap. Most of these multiplatform games had a PS2 baseline. Wii gamers might not care for graphics, physics & AI. However PS360 owners have payed for these propositions.

It looks like the Wii gets more big titles, however PS360 cannot be denied. Big titles will still be released on PS360 (+ Wii version developed separately).

Yep, and I was gaming since 1988.

 In one paragraph. Forget the AAA development teams that already make games at the HD level. Focus your attention on the smaller more agile developers that show promise. If you don't comprehend that Epic started games with "Jill of the Jungle" and Id started with "Dangerous Dave" then you have no place to be arguing here. The Wii crowd says that they want "small, agile, creative teams" Look to the good quality small PC developers or the up and coming Wiiware developers. Sure they'll make a lot of crap in the process, but you have to realize for every good idea theres going to be 10 bad ones.

@ rocketpig

huh?

Your tearing apart his prediction?

What if's are never good argueing point's but they make good arguements.

@ OP (w/ consideration to rocketpig's point)

Anyway yes the Wii would need about a 70 million unit lead on the combined userbase of the HD consoles to be similar to the PS2 (Not counting DC)

Soo typically the Wii is 2:1 in favor Wii to PS2 and currently it's tracking a bit over that for monthly rates compared to Xbox360, at this point all we can do is guess though >.> I mean the trend is there and as long as Nintendo doesn't flood the market to figure out (similar to a launch day) what the demand curve is in the US it would be kind of hard to say "this is how it sells."

However be as dominant as the PS2 I don't think so... mainly because their not competing with one another according to Nintendo and Sony.

The next reason is that the PS2 sold on a 3:1 ratio for every 3 ps2s sold 1 of the competition sold. XD That's a big difference from 2:1 - however in life time sales it could overlap the PS2; but that's a whole different thing.

So yea dominant may not be the correct word.. maybe successful?

Bump for awesome editorial.

@Rocket pig if Wii sells 280 million and his competitors less than 50 million is dominating the market more than PS2 did....Not that I say it will happen but considering some of the predictions some have it could...