Yeah, but do you make equally much selling 50K on Wii as you do by selling 150K on X360? 300K on Wii as 700K on X360?

Considering the shipping fees, and all the costs that are connected, I doubt it. Having looked at this, I think the "make games for Wii, and earn more money" might be a bit narrow-sighted. I'm not saying it's wrong, but this data makes it look less likely (and at least not to as big an extent as others (and I) have believed (and most currently believe).

I applaud Oyvoyvoyv for having the devotion to see the truth.  There are some great openings on the Wii for software (obviously -- it is the undisputed king of this generations marketshare %), but its not all as rosey as it appears at first glance.  The 3rd party publishers aren't quite as dumb as you might think for sticking with the PS3 and 360 for so long, despite the Wii's apparent success.

I think the Wii landslide may change that eventually, but the numbers presented here clearly demonstrate the power of targetable demographics.

I also think that the avoidance of the Wii as a primary platform is something of a double-edged sword.  It produces lower quality products, which in turn sell less, which then causes the cycle to repeat.  If the 3rd parties would step up to the plate in a bit more of a bold fashion (tough to do in rough economic times), the Wii would see more than a linear gain in software momentum, I think.

I'm certain this prospect frightens publishers a bit.  Everyone likes to play it safe when the stock market is crashing.  The Wii will have its day.

Wow, very nice post. Seems like alot of work went into this.

I think that this is one of the many cases where looking at the percentage gives people a false sense of what is really happening ...

We know that Wii games are (generally speaking) dramatically less expensive than similar games on the HD systems, and the Wii has a dramatically higher percentage of the library made up of "Low Budget" games than either of the HD consoles. As a result of this, you would expect that a basket of Wii games would generate a similar return on investment at a lower sales level to a basket of HD games.

Now, if publishers were correct when they were saying a Wii game cost 1/4 to 1/2 what it costs to produce a similar HD game and the number of low budget games keeps the average development cost close to the bottom of that range then if a sales level of 50,000 is bad for Wii games a 200,000 unit sales level couldn't be particularly good for most HD games ... If 200 Wii games sold to 150,000 units or more and the HD consoles only have 201 games which have passed 500,000 units sold which system has more games that have turned a profit?

I like the work guys but unlike the 360 and the Wii, the PS3 actually has full games that are sold in retail and can also be downloaded straight to the harddrive which those figures would not be included in the sales. I'm not talking PSN/XBL type of games either because those games obviously do not warp the percentages since they will not be included in the total number of games. I'm talking about Burnout: paradise, Gran Turismo 5 prologue, Warhawk, Socom, Siren, and I think that is it so far. All those games have sold more than what it would show in terms of sales. It wouldn't change the number drastically but it could be enough to bump one or two games into another bracket and thus change the percentages and make them closer to the 360's.

I'd say the 360's percentages should be the highest though as on average their games have had more time to sell. The only significant finding it seems is that a large number of wii titles are complete failures. Though I bet it cost less to produce them so the risk of making a game on any of the three consoles is about the same.

can't believe 81% of wii games fail to reach gold. With its massive 46 million userbase. More games reach 500k on PS3 with its small 19 million userbase.

Don't forget about the prices. The average price of a Wii game is a lot less than a 360 or a PS3 game. With shipping fees, holding fees, marketing fees and most likely the mark up fees from retailers being pretty constant. You can assume that the Publishers would be taking in a fair amount more money from selling 1 HD game then they would with 1 Wii game.

Exactly.  Intresting read.  Thanks!

No, a higher percentage of PS3 games break 500,000 ... The Wii still has more games past 1 Million than the PS3 has past 500,000

Except that a large portion of the $10 extra per HD console game goes to the Console manufacturer, in part to recover the losses from selling hardware below cost.