Honestly, I am much happier with Dead Space as a rails shooter than the new Resident Evil game.  A few thoughts:

• Novel Concept:  We've already had 3 or 4 zombie shooters on the Wii.  I know Dead Space is essentially Space Zombies, but the space colony setting, the vent traveling, zero gravity and others will be intereseting to see in a rails environment.
• Hardware Limitations:  Strategic dismemberment is an integral part of Dead Space, and I'm not sure if the Wii could handle a full 3D application of it.  Being on-rails might allow the game to not compromise w/r/t dismemberment.
• Co-op:  My girlfriend would hide in the other room when I played Dead Space.  Now she can blast Necros with me
• Pushing the Genre:  Look at what Dead Space did to the core gameplay of Resident Evil 4.  One can hope that DS:E will similarly push the boundraies of the rail shooting genre

Again, the game could be crap.  But I think there's definitely enough promise that I'm holding out hope!

Regarding HD games like RE selling better, this is a point you will see a lot on these forums, but the main thing publishers/developers are concerned with is profitability, as with any business.

Because HD development is more costly (20-30 mil per title is common, and sometimes costs more), a higher amount of units is needed to be sold, whereas Wii development ranges from 5-10 mil. Less units can be sold for the Wii version but still turn a profit faster due to the cheaper dev cost.

As for your last question, it depends on what the developer wants to make. Most development teams have dreams of games they'd like to make. Its not all a "McDonalds" situation, churn out crap to sell. For instance, I have no interest in sports games as a gamer or as a developer, and I wouldn't make such a game just because sports games sell. In fact, the FPS game we're working on was more of a compromise than it was my vision. My goals are to develop games that would put Resident Evil and Silent Hill to shame. It's all about vision.

Well it seems like we are on the same page. Ofcourse profitability is a concern and it seems like more ambitious efforts are ignored on the Wii. The best selling games on the PS3 and XBox 360 are typically the best games on those consoles.

That's another problem I have with Wii games. A ton of money goes into developing HD games and the quality is typically far better. Brand new Wii games are only about $10 dollars cheaper to the consumer, cost a fraction to develop, and are typically much inferior products. Sega for example will most likely put all their efforts into the Wii because their HD games just can't compete with the quality titles other companies develop. Wii owners have lower expections and drop the same kind of money oddly enough.

As far as the last thing you're touching on. My point is a lot of developers put games on the Wii with the intention of cashing in without delivering a great product. They exploit the Wii owners by bringing them a popular HD game and leaving out what made that game a success.

I think that is just unfair. No genre of game is inferior than another. Listen, I hate JRPGs, I cannot for the life of me understand the interest. However I understand that is an issue of taste. On the other hand I like rail-shooters, granted I'm getting sick of them with so many coming out, but I was pumped as hell when the first few arrived.

I get that you don't like rail-shooters, thats fine. But don't pretend that your taste applies equally to all of us.

And yes I am disappointed we are not getting a normal RE or Dead Space game.

 Bolded=Horribly subjective comments.

As for Sega: they made VC so don't mess with them.

Rails shooters play a very important role - they are the pick-up-and-play hardcore game.  No other game is as simple and intuitive to learn.

If I have a friend over who wants to play a game, s/he often doesn't have the time or patience to invest the 2-3 hours required to pick up the control scheme.  That's not a problem with rails shooters.

This funciton shouldn't be understated.

Well it seems like we are on the same page. Ofcourse profitability is a concern and it seems like more ambitious efforts are ignored on the Wii. The best selling games on the PS3 and XBox 360 are typically the best games on those consoles.

That's another problem I have with Wii games. A ton of money goes into developing HD games and the quality is typically far better. Brand new Wii games are only about $10 dollars cheaper to the consumer, cost a fraction to develop, and are typically much inferior products. Sega for example will most likely put all their efforts into the Wii because their HD games just can't compete with the quality titles other companies develop. Wii owners have lower expections and drop the same kind of money oddly enough.

As far as the last thing you're touching on. My point is a lot of developers put games on the Wii with the intention of cashing in without delivering a great product. They exploit the Wii owners by bringing them a popular HD game and leaving out what made that game a success.