2008 wasn’t that great for wii.  There was good support from Nintendo not only in the form of SSBB and Mario kart but also the lesser remembered fire emblem, warioland and disaster (if you lived in PAL regions) and the totally forgotten battalion wars 2 (my most played online wii game). There were also some third party hits such as de blob, world of goo, NMH and boom blox.  But third part support  was simply blown away by the third party HD offerings.

But this year this seems to have changed, with third party wii offerings being much better and in terms of exclusives, it could be said to be beating  the HD consoles. Im not trying to be a fanboy but the only third party exclusives for HD consoles that I can think of so far this year are infinite undiscovery and velvet assassin. Im sure there are more though and there will definitely be some in the latter half of the year such as splinter cell. Lets look at what good products third party publisher are offering this year in the west.

Capcom:

 Spyborgs, resident evil: darkside chronicles, resident evil archives,  Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars

Sega:

House of the dead overkill, madworld, conduit, lets tap, mario and sonic at the winter olympic games, sonic and sega all star racing

EA:

 Boom Blox Bash Party, Grand Slam Tennis (timed exclusive, I think a first on wii) Tiger Woods 2010, Dead Space: extraction, Spore hero, harry potter and the half blood prince, need for speed: nitro, Rock Band: Beatles, LOTR: Aragorn’s adventure

Ubisoft:

Tenchu: shadow assassins, Anno: Dawn of discovery, red steel 2, Rabbids Go Home, TMNT: Smash Up, Shaun White snowboarding.

XSeed/Rising Star:

Little King’s Story, Rune Factory Frontier, Ju-on: the Grudge, Fragile (NA only so far), Valhallah Knights 2 (PAL only so far)

Ignition:

Muramassa (NA only this year)

Lucasarts:

Indiana Jones, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes

Activision:

Guitar Hero: Metallica, DJ Hero, Guitar Hero V

Konami:

Silent Hill: shattered memories, Castlevania Judgesment (PAL)

Codemasters:

Overlord Dark Legend, Colin McRae Dirt 2,  F1 2009 (ooh another timed console exclusive)

Looking at this list made me realise some things

1. Game titles have lots of colons in them
2. of the two biggest third parties, EA has huge wii support wheras activision has hardly anything
3. to everyone’s surprise ubisoft  is set to have great wii support this year and with NMH2 (look for an announcement at E3) next year is looking good too.
4. Square Enix have got nothing outside of wiiware, although for announcements at E3 and a playable demo of Crystal Bearers
5. from what we know so far, this year will be the first year I buy more games from a third party (sega) than I do from Nintendo

so what do u guys think? Who do you think will be the best third party developer for wii this year? do you think wii third party support is this year equal to their HD support? Who do you expect to announce new wii games at E3?

Your thoughts are welcomed

It´s much better, no doubt, but I´m not seeing any major shift in 3rd party support away from PS360...more like, they´re now starting to show the Wii some love, but not at the expense of the HD systems, save for very few exceptions.

Absolutely. It started once MH3 was taken from PS3 and made for Wii. Then DQ. Then samller scales games like Indiana Jones. When we are in the midst of the worst economical conditions since the GD, you really cannot afford to continue bleeding money.

true, wii can outclass HD in temrs of exclusives but not in terms of multiplats, though i guess resources that go towards wii developent are being taken away from HD development. though given the difference in dev costs this will probably not be noticeable

@ Arius
im not sure thats the reason, but more to do with who feels they can make money on wii. EA and THQ are both losing but only EA has moved towards wii.

likewise Ubisfot and Activision are making money but whilst ubisfot has strong wii support, Activision's support is very weak

The Wii is starting to get a bunch of announcements, but I really don't think the shift is too great. If the Wii starts getting more announcements than the HD consoles, then we can call it a shift.

I dont think it will ever take third party support from the HD consoles, but it will start to get some good games, like it currently is

Trauma Team
Tatsunoko VS. Capcom
Silent Hill: Silent Dreams
Fragile
Ju-On the Grudge
TMNT: Smash up

I think whats happening is that the really good studios, the ones people here can name are staying with the HD consoles for the most part, whilst the noname studios which cannot produce good enough games/cant handle HD development that well, are switching to the Wii.

So in the future with a reduction in poor quality software the HD consoles will be even more profitable for the big boys.

There is more coming for the Wii from third parties (finally).
But most of it seems to be new rather than at the expense of other projects.
So maybe this is a win-win for all gamers.

Mike from Morgantown

@Squilliam

That would be true except that a good game does not equal good production values.