There is one thing that has left me baffled for about the past year. I'm not going to rant about the lack of 3rd party support for the wii because it's been done to death (though to be fair, quality 3rd party support has seen marginal improvement). No, the issue at hand, for me, is that 3rd parties seem unable to spot the connection between well known franchises and sales on the wii.

It's been well documented the a large number of 3rd party titles have seen their share of sales trouble on the wii. Common contributing factors included: rushed ports of DC, ps2, and xbox games that are anywhere for 1-8 years old, ports of current ps2 games, niche titles, poor marketing, etc. The exceptions to the rule typically do one of two things. A) copy the formula of a previously released nintendo title or B) come from a well known, established franchise.

look at some of the million+ sellers on the wii:

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games, guitar hero III, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Rayman Raving Rabbids 1/2, My Sims, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles/RE:4, Lego Star Wars.

the only other million+ sellers are two mario party clones (game party, carnival games), and one original IP (Red Steel).

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, this isn't a jab against wii sales or wii owners. What it is, is a wake up call to 3rd parties that entries from established franchises can make their mark on the wii. Do I want want RE:5 on the wii? Of course not because it would only look inferior to it's next gen counterpart. However, Why not a RE:2 or RE:3 remake (like what the gamecube saw with RE several years back). Or, if not that, why not a side story like RE: Code Veronica? Why not a Grand Theft Auto title along the lines of Liberty City Storties on the wii? Nintendo already let a Manhunt title on their console so why not GTA? How about a real final fantasy title. Lord knows the rereleases sell like hot cakes on the DS.

So get your asses in gear on the goods that are bound to sell and leave wii owners happy.

I agree with your points though I would like to mention that most of the games that you mentioned seem to be western based, and that will be by far the last to come to the Wii. As for 'Real' final fantasy Crystal Bearers(if you watch the most recent trailer) looks alot like recent Final Fantasy titles, and I would much rather that than a remake(depends on Which game), or a full spinoff(actually based of a main title in the series rather than being called a spinoff because final fantasy is in the name). I actually consider Crystal Chronicles a series of its own until the crystal bearers trailer which showed alot of elements of Final Fantasy games. I do want to mention though that it takes time to make Wii games, and alot of Wii games seem to have little information on them(could be a policy that Nintendo has on 3rd parties that is similar to their own, very possible). The support is increasing and we should see more and more existing Franchises on the Wii as time goes on, but the Wii will also be the platform for the birth of new Franchises. And maybe even huge ones. Also I love new Ips, and hope more and more come to the Wii.

If its marketed well it will sell, if it's not for the widest demographic it wont sell.

Established franchizes sell sure, but RE:4 and UE were just examples of marketable Ip's on that platform.

I'm I remember I believe the VP from Factor 5 almost 9 months ago now saying in an interview that Capcom needs to bite the bullet and invest heavily into a Wii RE:5, it at least shows that some developers get it. We did this whole thread on Capcom not even a week ago, of course there was no one conclusion but without much words to express it their new "chop till you drop" game seems more like a cheap cashin than a game designed for the Wii to match or surpass the "bar of quality" set by Nintendo.

That game will determine if it's the Capcom name that sells on that platform or if it's the marketing or maybe the quality of the game. (After Red Steele maybe the marketing.)

It takes a while to make those kinds of games though, and Nintendo already had everything up to Brawl in the workings since 2005.

tastyshovelware,

The problem is that publishers and developers believed that the Wii was going to fail. Therefore they did not set their budgets to develop for the Wii. Therefore most developers do not have development tools ready for the Wii. Square Enix in an interview stated that had recently started on Crystal tools for the Wii, While the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions were well into development.

Square Enix are stupid. Anyway, they're a bunch of wannabe film studio.

Patjuan pretty much nailed it. I'd only add that since it's been less than a year since the Wii shed its "fad" image, developers won't have had enough time to really get into the system yet (since development times on the Wii are 18-24 months, and since many teams are already devoted to HD games). So take heart tastyshovelware: with a bit of patience, you'll get even more quality games sooner rather than later. It's already beginning.

i want RE5 wii

Welcome, and thank you for flying with 1987 Airlines. Please be advised that things are going to get hectic soon, so please fasten your wrist straps and return your Wii Remotes to a sideways position.

Our first stop on our tour through this curious year of bad hair and worse fashion sense is a store selling Nintendo games. Here, we can see the Nintendo Entertainment System is selling like wildfire, as it has been for the last year and a half. If you'll follow me, we can look at the games section. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot available right now, but if you take a flight with our sister airline, 1988 Airlines, you'll discover that this situation changes drastically within only 12 months as new developers emerge and try releasing their titles on this rising star of video game systems. As for now, most of the titles available are from Nintendo and other Japanese companies that have been developing for the system since as far back as 1984.

Next up on our tour is the computer game store. Well, this certainly looks much more lively, doesn't it? There's games all over the place, from lots of big-name developers of the time. Here we have Psygnosis, Mirrorsoft, Mindscape... Not many of these may sound familiar to you if you're not well-versed in history, as many of them collapsed around the mid-1990s, while others were absorbed by more successful companies as an effort to deal with their losses. But just look at their reputations! Why, Mirrorsoft recently even released Tetris on the PC, a sure hit! As you can see, releasing quality software doesn't guarantee survival for any company.

This concludes our flight, and so we return you now to 2008. Thank you for flying with 1987 Airlines. We hope you've enjoyed your flight, and encourage you to fly with us again!

keeping in mind that E3 was a joke this year (for pretty much everyone), it still would have been a perfect time for anyone with any major wii announcements for 08/09 to have them known. perhaps in a teaser or with some concept art.

my issue isn't so much with 3rd party support in general (as I noted earlier, it is gradually improving with titles like mad world, de blob, and the conduit).

but it seems ridiculous to me that it's been 21 months and 30 million consoles later, and the majority of the 'forward thinking' developers haven't even let out a tease that they are at least thinking of dropping their major franchises onto the wii in some form or another.

You're being too pessimistic. While I can understand why things might seem that way right now, the Wii IS getting plenty of the major franchises in the near future. Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Call of Duty, the EA Sports line-up, I Am Alive, Spore, Skate, Tony Hawk...Many of the biggest third party games are getting a non-gimped Wii version, with the only difference usually being that the Wii version has an added control scheme (Skate, EA Sports, Spore). Yes, the major gaming sites focus on the HD console versions, but the Wii's getting many of the same games as well.

Furthermore, the Wii is the only console that's getting most of the Japanese support. All in all, I wouldn't worry about the future too much, as it seems pretty solid. As I wrote last time, you just need to have a bit of patience (as a few months' notice isn't enough to really work on anything worth talking about, and most teams are only just getting free from whatever projects they were previously devoted to).