I mean... lets look at the facts....

1) HD games are expensive.  Even a regular HD game is going to cost you a large chunk of change.

2) Being expensive these systems need a lot of sales to make back the money.  Hence the need for "Sure to hit" properties.

3) Companies need to diversify their products and offer on different systems so they can maximize sales.

If you took all the blockbuster games off the HD systems, you'd just be left with average games... unlikely to make back their money, and even worse, highly prone to totally flopping and costing millions.

Seems stupid.

I mean, even if the big blockbuster games don't make back their money... you know they have guranteed sales and are going to come close.

I mean,  the PS2 is a sinking ship, so you can't tie to that much longer.

The PSP and DS are there.... but not everyone can retool teams to make successful DS games and who knows about PSP... how long will it last... will my game sell?

It seems to make sense to me anwyay.

Sure a lot of people need to improve the quality of their Wii games... but i'd argue that Wii isn't really where the blockbusters should be.  Those should be off covering their back while they develop new ips and mid range ips on the Wii and make the successful ones their own Wii blockbusters.

This is a prime example of why you need to use an introductory paragraph. You jump directly to facts and even after reading it I still don't know what you're trying to argue.

i agree with ymeaga1n...

But anyways... for me its a simple formula.

You own a console, and you want to see good games on it. You want to play good games on it, and spending 50$ to play a game on it is much better than spending hundreds to buy another system and play it.

If this is in reference to Wii owners(which it seems obvious is your real point...)

its simpler, the Wii has a MUCH higher market share then its competitors and sells software at a high rate.... Needless to say common sense would dictate that Devs. would spend the money to appease the demand of those consumers. When this doesnt happen, its frustrating to the consumer base hence "people upset that blockbusters are on HD consoles". Now apply the logic in the first paragraph and you have the reason.

@exnoctem

The wii has 48 percent of the market, the rest is for the HD consoles, maybe thats why the games arent on the wii? Because on HD consoles you get masterpieces with amazing visuals, and addictive online, that sells extreemly well on its own(add a pc version and your set).

Actually common sense would be to make games like the ones that sell extreemly well on the wii, wii play, wii fit, wii music starting to climb, guitar hero, those casual oriented games.

Selling millions, common sense, why make a block buster hit on the wii? When you can make another carnival games and it will sell millions? And take less $$ to make it?

There is no logic behind it.  And I don't like the term "HD consoles" as many blockbuster games, like GTA IV and Halo 3, aren't even HD.

Blockbusters are on lesser-selling consoles because in 2005 / 2006 when these games began development, they assumed (as did everyone) that nobody would buy "Revolution."

AAA games take between 2 to 4 years to develop.

People are under the thinking that 3rd party games are on HD consoles because it was too late to stop development and start making the games on Wii. I mean that is about as disillusion as one can get, your not going to get flagship 'hardcore' games like RE on the Wii.

Unless of course there is something I do not know, we going to see RE6 sell 8 million on the Wii? Games like No More Heroes has not done great, shovelware and Nintendo first party games do fantastically though.

Not quite true.
If you´re a 3party dev, then most of you games are multiplat. Most of the multiplat that also are designed for wii, flop on wii(unless they are for children or are party games). So usually big blockbusters like GTAIV are PS360 only. To Rockstar the Hd userbase work as one. So for multiplat games, it works making PS360 exclusive, because they sell very well. Wii only sells Nintendo. Take a look at the best 3rd party title on wii, it doens´t come close to GTA.
Why would a dev make a exclusive to wii to sell 2-3mln LTD if he can make a PS360 title that sells 6mln.

Because once to factor in all the costs, the bigger the game the less the Wii "advantages" on overall cost are important.


1. Massive advertisement; You have to advertise as much if not more than HD games to target the wider demographic of users on the Wii.

2. The cost/benifit ratio still applies; Why spend $10,000,000 making a Wii game look good when for an extra $10,000,000 the game will look 5* better?

3. Overall cost ratios come down and favour HD development more as your overall budget increases. Wii $10,000,000 game + $10,000,000 advertisement vs HD $20,000,000 game + $10,000,000 advertisement and the ratio is 2:3.

4. Easier to target demographics and advertising + word of mouth very easy to do with the HD community. The demographics they target for these games are deep, wide and easy to get to within the HD owner userbase. Also never underestimate the power of word of mouth selling games, especially within Xbox Live.

Yeah but the blockbusters for this entire gen will be only on the Wii:

Wii Sports
Wii Sports Resort

Fanboys Cry. Skies Shatter. But it's the way life is.

What do you mean by blockbuster?

Best selling over X million sales, biggest development budget, best known, biggest advertising budget?