ok, Wii is selling like hot cakes (probably even at a higher rate than VGChartz's reports as NPD July sales figures were 18% higer than VGChartz) and clearly by the end of the year it will be the N°1 next-gen system by a great margin...but still there's a lack of support by 3rd party devs and not without a reason as 3rd party games are selling poorly (compared to the user base). Could this be an issue for the HW sales in 2008? How long can continue a success that's only based on 1st party games?

3rd parties are going to get going on good 3rd party games that sell.

Hey I invented a tongue twister.

3rd parties are going to get going on good 3rd party games that sell good. I think that will pretty much happen, it happened with the PS2

3rd parties are going to get going on good 3rd party games that sell good.

You should replace Wii with Ps3 in your question

Spectrumglr said:  How long can continue a success that's only based on 1st party games?

The question is when people will get tired of Nintendo games. Take a look on DS. Is there someone disappointed because of weak EA or Ubi support? Most people buy system for first party games. It's not a coincidence. First party games define each system. It's especially clear when we talk about Nintendo. People want MP, Mario, Brawl etc..

carlos710 said: You should replace Wii with Ps3 in your question

i could do this just for the "lack of success"...as for the "lack of support" i think that till now Wii is not getting the same attention of PS3 by 3rd party devs.

Lack of success? Since when?

Don't tell me people are getting all doom and gloom over Boogie again.

First let's look at the situation as 3rd parties might see it:

I think that RE4 (A Wii-make of a AAA game) and DQ:S (A mediocre spin-off of a AAA game) prove that 3rd party titles CAN sell.

They need to make some A and AAA titles to do it though, just like on any other system. Also the launch 3rd party games did pretty well, showing that Wii owners aren't Nintendo-only buyers. They are buying more Nintendo games because the 3rd parties are sucking.

Now B and C games can sell and have sold 70-150k+ copies on Wii, and the 3rd parties can make a profit. They can probably make 3-4 third rate titles for the same as one Wii AAA title, or 5-7 third rate Wii games for every one first or second tier game on PS3 or 360. Because they are distributing that money among several titles they are taking less risk (read: not putting all their eggs in one basket). This isn't even considering cash-in ports and super-casual games.

Now let's look at the situation as it is:

There are arguably no AAA third party games coming out for Wii as of right now. There are several A titles (Zack and Wiki, SC:Legends?, Rabbids2?, etc.), some B level games, and a bunch of C level games. A game like Ponyz probably has a relatively small staff and shares lots of resources with Catz, Dogz, Fishez, etc.

The fact is that these companies must be making money off of these cheap-ass portz and casual gamez. As long as they are making money, they will keep making games.

What will happen in the next year or two?

As the 3rd parties catch up and there are more Wii users, there will still be the same amount of shovel ware because the larger base will spread out even more. There will be more A and AAA games though because that end of the market will be very competitive. A games will become AAA, and B games will become A, because there will be more selection for gamers to choose from.

lack of success? more like lack of offerings.

even from nintendo themselves... lack of wii offerings.

wait a few months, and then this becomes a more legitimate question.

3rd parties on wii is a mixed bag but there are many winners already. I'm not gonna make judgements on games like boogie or madden 08 that just came out.

Big successes (or sold more than all other platforms)
Red Steel
Rayman
Sonic
Tiger Woods
Cooking Mama
The Bigs (will pass 360 next week for highest sales)
Harry Potter (best sales of all platforms)
Resident Evil 4
Monkey Ball
Trauma Center
Rapala (unfortunately)
DBZ
Elebits (this and DBZ somewhere inbetween maybe)

Doing ok, not great
spiderman (gonna pass PS3 version soon)
Super Swing Golf (did well enough for a sequal)
Call of Duty 3
Marvel ultimate alliance
Madden 07 (for a Nintendo system it actually did very well though)

Doing bad
scarface
Need for Speed Carbon (could be worse though)
SSX Blur (120k NA only, it's not good but could be worse i guess)


I dunno i couldn't find much in the US for 3rd party games that should have done good and did terrible. Perhaps SSX Blur is the closest thing even though it probably sold enough to get the development money back. Scarface was a really good game and deserved better sales across the board, but the Wii version did especially bad.
At the very least the Wii has established itself as a viable option, I don't think anything put on Wii yet has failed miserably and caused losses. Some people have struck gold.