The San Jose Mercury News interviewed Jim Ward, president of LucasArts and one of the Entertainment Software Association's key board members.  He doesn't say anything particularly interesting, but he does take a subtle jab at Nintendo.

Microsoft:

Look, Microsoft is all about broadening the audience. One can argue whether they're doing that effectively or not, but through efforts like (the family game) "Viva Pinata," I think their head's definitely in the right place. And certainly their head is absolutely in the right place in terms of XBox Live and Xbox Live Arcade and all of those types of persistent online opportunities, because that in essence is going to give us the back-end revenue stream that we so sorely need.

...

But if you sit down with (Microsoft executives) Robbie Bach or Peter Moore, you're going to hear from them that understanding of the need to broaden the market. Does that mean they're walking away from a franchise like "Halo" or "Gears of War" or working with (game developer) BioWare on "Mass Effect"? No. And you know what, I wouldn't either, because there's a hell of a market right here and now.

Sony:

Is Sony grasping the need to broaden the audience to the same degree? Probably not. They've got great technology (in the PlayStation 3), but obviously they've had a hard time getting it out. They've priced it at a certain level which argues against an accessibility (and) the kinds of games they're doing themselves in their own studios are still more in that traditional mode.

Nintendo: 

Q Has the Wii changed the thinking in any way at LucasArts?

A No, it hasn't changed thinking. I'm excited by it. The Wii came out of nowhere. And by the way, with all due respect to Nintendo, they're not the greatest at third-party relationships because they're kind of focused on their own games. So we didn't really know a whole lot about this thing, and they weren't out there trumpeting, "We're going to broaden the industry." They just kind of let it happen. But that direction and that effort - I'm on a mountaintop cheering that on. And so . . . for us, there was a bit of a wait-and-see in terms of "Well, what in the hell is this thing even?" and "Is it going to take off?" But the minute we understood what it was, we began development.

I don't know about you, but this answer kind of upsets me about Nintendo. When the Wii-mote was shown at E3, one of the first things people were crying for was a lightsaber game. I'm sure Nintendo was busy getting all their ducks in a row, but they should've went after LucasArts quick, letting them know all the wonderful details of the Wiimote and asked them to start with a StarWars title right away.

I still think Nintendo has to work on their 3rd party relationships. 

It's kinda how Nintendo is...

And I do love their first party games...but yeah, Nintendo likes to keep secrets...

It's good that third parties are getting onboard now though. Games will be coming later...later is better than never, like with GC anyway.

Explains the lack of any big 3rd party support for the wii at E3.

Basically they were wait and see, they saw, now they're making stuff. Seems pretty reasonable actually.

It'd be stupid for them not to get onboard...at LEAST with crappy minigames...but LucasArts generally makes great games.

As stated many, many times...developers didn't really know the Wii would do so well until close to its launch. After the launch, it did really well, continues to sell, so developers have been getting onboard since the beginning of the year. That means their games will be coming out later next year I'd assume...I'm fine with that...it sounds like a lot of big PS3 games will come out next year as well...so there will still be some competition with WiiFit and good third party games it seems.

I am not that old, and I haven't been in the workforce for that long but you'd be surprised the number of times that I have heard Business/Marketing drones and their Executives look at a technical product, completely ignore what anyone says about it and decide that there is no market for it. I personally suspect Nintendo visited Lucasarts, told them what the Wii was all about and they ignored what Nintendo said (potentially comments like "A console without HD, who's going to buy that?" were said behind the back of the Nintendo representative).

Kind of like Factor 5...which I've lost some respect for. It's fine that they think the Wii is underpowered...but they act like they can't make a good game on a console like the Wii. Part of me wonders if Factor 5 was always out to just make the best looking game...since their game models haven't changed much since the first Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron 2 was great, but Rogue Squadron 3 sucked...even if it looked AMAZING. That's why I'm worried about Lair...though it seems to be getting plenty of work.

This proves precisely that 3rd parties were not on board from day one. Whether or not Nintendo is at fault is questionable since business spin tends to point mistakes in the direction of someone else. I suspect that Happy Squirel may be on to something.

I wonder if thier secretive and protective nature is a result of the PS1 development debacle.

Either way, the statement is true.