Everyone is critical of Nintendo this holiday season for not having solid releases.

But how much should the maker of the console be responsible for its software success?

Nintendo tends to have a 4:1 (four Nintendo hits for every third-party hit) ratio of top-sellers while Sony and Microsoft have the inverse (1:4).

While people here have been critical of third-parties for not relasing more quality games for the Wii, most video game outlets have tended to focus solely on the Big N. Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft are expected to produce as many hits or games.

I know history has something to do with different expectations. But both Sony and Microsoft have been making games and/or buying game companies for years now. So should they not be expected to have more first-party success?

Mike from Morgantown

Nintendo is not that much like Sony and MS. Their 1st party games are capable of actually carrying their hardware, Sony and MS could not do that. They absolutely need 3rd party support to be successful.

Because of that situation Nintendo focuses on making great games and their IPs have always been held to the highest standards.

Just look at home many Nintendo games sell 5m+ as compared to anything 1st party to MS or Sony.

Unfortunately that also has drawbacks as on Nintendo hardware a 3rd party has much stiffer competition.

Personally, I think that is the problem with MS and Sony. They need better 1st party games to push their names. PS3 would be doing much better if it were not losing all of its best games exclusivity. Had GTA and other top notch games been 1st party PS3 would be the HD system to have.

Honestly I can only think of maybe one game each that MS/Sony has 1st party control over that has a major pull for the consumer. Halo and Gran Turismo respectively. Whereas Nintendo has Super Mario, Brawl, Mario Kart, Zelda, etc.

I think people don't want to blame the developers and would rather blame Nintendo. Considering this year has seen MKWii, SSBB, AC:CF, D:DoC & Wario Land you would think that was enough.

Let's look at this Holiday:
Gears of war 2, Fable 2, LBP, Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2, Banjo.

The truth is The HD consoles are giving us 1st party games and good ones too. It's just Nintendo sells more 1st party games.

Gears is 3rd party

Everyone's always the most critical of the leader... but I suspect they're going to see some solid 'win' over the holidays in terms of console sales.

Nintendo made a platform that only the knew how to suceed on so effectivley the Wii isn't a platform but more like a maze in which only Ninty have a proper map for navigating , 3rd parties will occasionaly bill succesful with it but aren't alowed a consistentcy they might find on HD platforms.

Don't ask me why i give odd examples like that lol.

I would argue that Gears of War is not a third party release, but a Microsoft one.

The sad part of your maze analogy is that the path through the maze is laughably simple. The only reason none of the third parties have figured it out is because they keep trying to go down blind alleys on one side of the maze when the right path is very obviously on the other side of it.

With a few exceptions, the distinguishing quality of Nintendo's greatest sellers on Wii is an immersive experience which cannot be replicated faithfully by button-pressing and analog stick movement alone. Unfortunately, after having spent years copycatting Nintendo's formulas by theme, the idea of copycatting the principles of interface just doesn't occur to third parties.

It is published by MS, my bad. I knew Epic made it and didn't realize MS was the publisher. I just figured Epic published it as well.