From the Gamestop e-mail newletter:

Join the Elite, Non-Musical Squadron

When we thought "H.A.W.X." stood for "Hammer a Wild Xylophone," we could not figure out why Tom Clancy would be interested in a tribute to the late Tito Puente. Now that we know it means "High Altitude Warfare – Experimental Squadron," it makes sense that he'd be behind a futuristic flight-combat game. Ships for Xbox 360 and PS3 today, March 3. Ships for PC March 17. Look for the Wii version next spring. Order online or visit your local GameStop.

The question is posted in the subject -- why come out with a Wii version of Hawx one year after the other versions have been released?

Did Ubisoft get caught off-guard by the Wii's popularity? Or did they decide to make a cash in? 

And how much do these delays in releases (this is not the first) explain why Wii versions of multiplatform games explain why the Wii version often does not do as well as the others.

how very very odd

All answers will be pure speculation unless Ubi comes out and says something.

They might have decided that they didn't have enough resources to develop both an HD and a Wii version concurrently. So they put off polishing up the Wii project to get the HD one polished up and out the door on time.

Or maybe, as you say, the Wii version is an afterthought which was started after the HD versions were already well underway.

Perhaps the third-rate team doing the Wii version was producing a project so sub-par that they felt they had to delay the Wii version so it wouldn't damage the image of HAWX and the Tom Clancy brand.

I should add that I'm glad it's coming out for Wii at all and I hope Ubisoft delivers a quality product with that extra year.

Why is it that this possibility isn't quite as far-fetched as it should be?

Well a Wii version wasn't officially announced - although it did appear on the website for a while.

I think the Wii version was an after-thought. Also, they might take the Wii version is a slightly different direction to allow for a more immersive experience with WM+ stick handling controls. If it's not the same game it makes sense to release it at a different time.

WM+ might have also delayed this game - but not for a whole year.

I reckon the Wii won't game won't be the same game as the 360 PS3 one. Alot of companies seem to be doing this with the Wii at the moment, have their franchise main series release every 2 years on PS360 and then have a spin-off type thing every other year between.

Like er, Dead Space. Okay, thats the only example, but i'm calling the start of a trend!

So there's definetly a Wii version of Hawx coming? That's good news... right?

I don't understand some companies' strategies ...

There has been several cases of third party publishers releasing inferior versions of (often mediocre) games 6 to 12 months late on a platform; and since these games are inferior, are not exclusive, and do not have the same marketing support that the initial release had they tend to sell poorly. This might make sense in the cases where they are releasing a sequel of the game to the platform down the road and want to build an audience for that game, but it hasn't been that unusual to have orphaned games or for a publisher to (once again) release an inferior version of the sequel 6 to 12 months late.

I could be wrong, but I suspet that when publishers choose this strategy they are only hurting the "Brand" of their game in the long run ... Obviously we can't know how many sales it has cost EA, but this strategy may have meant that (up to) 1,000,000 copies of Rockband and Rockband 2 will not be sold on the Wii; which would be hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue lost and tens of millions in lost profits.

 Because this is the same company who sat on a Wii port of two Brothers in Arms games for over a year, just so they could release it alongside the the new Brothers in Arms game on the HD consoles.

was HAWX even any good?