Hey guys, I don´t follow handheld related news, but all I know is that 3rd parties really took notice of the DS by the little system´s 3rd year...is that correct?

I see many people saying the Wii is basically repeating the DS´ successful strategy....so if that´s true, then next year we´ll REALLY see most 3rd parties taking the Wii seriously, correct? (aside from Epic and a few others).

I hope so.

Doubt it will get that strong, PS360 software sales should remain strong while PSPs sales just went to shit.

Yes, I'm sure. It's already started. You can't ignore the market leader.

My view is it's not.

With the DS the only competition is PSP which Monster Hunter aside does not really sell software. So if third parties want their games to sell on handhelds they have to release their big games on DS.

With the Wii it is competing with 360 and PS3. 360 is a software sales beast and PS3 has been doing ok recently. PS360 are so different from Wii that developers are generally left with the choice of releasing on Wii alone, releasing on PS360 or releasing on WiiPS360 with Wii usually getting a dumbed down version. The options developers have been taking and I expect them to continue taking are to release their big games on PS360 but with sports games, lego series, star wars getting released on WiiPS360.

I don't see this changing at least for the next 2 years by which time the gap between Wii and combined sales of PS360 would be so wide it would make much more sense to just release on Wii (although 3rd parties have shown they don't really seem to have much sense so things might not even change then).

Theres a fundamental difference.PSP was hurt a lot by pyracy in occidental markets and most resources for handheld gaming were shifted to the DS.

On the home front ,though ,the PS3 software sales are quite good and the system cant be pirated.And the 360 sales are very strong too.

This shift may not happen.

Problem is that even if it happens it wont matter ,they wont be able to deliver too many masterpieces because those will be always compared to whats out in the PS360 and PC and due to the weak hardware that will be always very limited.

Well not AS much, but the support is growing every month. I think we will at least see Japanese third parties switch. Western ones probably not.  The wii is already getting excellent Japanese third party support, and its growing. So I think we will see it have the most Japanese third party support, while the HD consoles having the most western third party support this generation.

I've said from day one that it would, and I'm sticking to that statement. This winter marks the first wave, while next year third-parties will really start to hit their stride. Mind you, so many companies have invested so heavily in HD assets , with those companies often following the sunk costs fallacy, that the tide will not be as overwhelming as it is on the DS, but it will be indisputable by the end of this generation.

Figures there would be on fanboy arguing that the processing power would hinder developer support. Sales on the other systems is a legitimate reason the shift won't be dominant. But only bashers think the Wii's power will prevent the shift from being significant.

I have said this exact same thing on this board in at least 5-6 separate posts, with varying degrees of detail and in about a dozen other venues since about the time it was clear the Wii was running away with it (about a year ago).

If you don't believe me, you can look at the history of the business and, if you have half a brain, come to the conclusion that the clear frontrunner in each console generation ALWAYS enjoys the vast majority of the software support. The 'magic' behind this particular process? The the lure of MONEY.

I'll even go out on a limb and say this effect, like that of the DS, will be magnified because the competition is so much more expensive to develop on and the risk is so potentially high.

The end (at least until this topic crops up again like an indestructible zombie).