If you look at the Wii it's pretty simple to see what sells on the platforms for third party.
It's either game that are different from traditional games ( EA Sports Active, Carnival Games,Guitar Hero...), games that work really well with a Wiimote ( Tiger Woods).
The only third party game that did really well and doesn't belong to those categories is the CoD:Waw and it's a port of the biggest franchise of this gen...

So if you're a developer and the game you have on the HD platforms doesn't belong to either of those categories, I don't think you would expect a port to be very successfull which is the main reason those ports are not taking place.
That and anyway we are so far in the gen now that the mahority of the fans of traditional franchise that have already had an iteration on the HD consoles have bought an HD console at this point....

Half the HD console owners may have a wii, but most of them will say that their wii collects dust, while they play their HD system all the time. They might buy a Nintendo game every once in a while, like NSMBWii, but they'll play that for a while and then when they're done, they'll continue buying HD games and wait for the next nintendo game that they want, (probably Zelda Wii). They won't buy 3rd party games like Madworld or The Conduit. They already have better games then those on their HD console, be it the ps3 or xbox360.

In your hypothetical situation, if Nintendo was the only one to release a system (which let's be honest, there is absolutely no chance of that happening), then hardcore games would be released for the next nintendo console and hardcore gamers would buy them.

But in reality, as MS and Sony are almost guaranteed to release a next system, the same thing will happen next gen as this one. Nintendo will just continue to be known as the casual system. Hardcores either won't buy it , or will buy it but won't play it much. While nintendo fans and casual players will buy it and play it all the time, and Nintendo will win again.

I agree. Good post.

I think the Wii controllers Wiimote+nunchuck, actually don't have enough buttons for some games, I'm playing Batman:AA on PC, I cannot see how motion controls can enhance this game or if its even suitable. Theres not much to point at like shooter games, and the action seems more immediate and satisfying when you press the right buttons with good timing, gesture based controls might make this game frustrating. Some games just isn't designed to be used with motion controls to begin with.

There's a classic controller that has almost as many buttons as the ps3 controller.

@Luthor: You know, the best way to make money is to have power. That's why M$ is fighting to keep its monopoly and that's why the big publishers are buying smaller dev studios.

There's a reason why Wada and Kotick feel justified to tell Sony what they should do.
All the third parties like being thrown money at them to get their game on a certain platform.
Third parties love when the console manufacturers cut down their royalties to get the game published on their console.

Smaller devs don't seem to have any problem with Wii, only the big ones.

@cliffhanger: You may not notice, but your latter post contradicted the assertion you made in the prior post.

The reason why the "hardcore" didn't buy the 3rd party games was because of them having a better equivalent on another system they own, not because the game is on Wii, and also, you just pointed out yourself that the "hardcore" do buy Wiis.

In other words, the reason why the "hardcore" don't buy the third party games is because of the bad 3rd party games available on the system.

After pointing out it's all about the games and that the "hardcore" buys Nintendo systems, you went back to reducing your argument to the first post.

Judging by what you said, we know that the "hardcore" owns Wiis and buys good games for it. The real question is, why the good 3rd party games don't appear on Wii? Maybe you have some thoughts about it?

@Ail: Well there's RE4, Lego Star Wars, SW:FU, RE:UC, Lego Indiana Jones, Sonic And The Secret Rings, the RRR games, Mario & Sonic, Carnival Games as traditional 3rd party games that have had about as good or better success on Wii than CoD:WaW.

I see what you're saying. Forget what I said in my first post because obviously some hardcore players did buy a wii, some didn't. What I'm saying is that even those that bought one don't use it often, and when they do, its to play 1st party games. They won't buy 3rd party because there are better games on their primary system.

Your question is why the good 3rd party games don't appear on wii. There are some good 3rd party games out there and they sell well. you just listed some at the bottom of your post. I'm talking about truly "hardcore" games in my definition. The hardcore gamers are all about graphics and if they have a choice between buying it for wii or their primary system, they will buy it for their hd system. This is in general, obviously not for every single gamer.

The developers are realizing this, and so will not bring those games to wii, even though they might sell reasonably well, but might not be worth it to them.

I agree with you bdbdbd.

Edit: When I said power earlier, I am talking about the power of the hardware.

@cliffhanger: Otherwise well reasoned but you keep on hanging on your "hardcore" definition.

In multiplatform games your reasoning makes perfect sense (as this topic is primarily about multiplatform games), but why not putting out some quality exclusives. There's huge overlap between the audiences, the installbase of Wii and its competitors combined is roughly equal but Wii development is cheaper.

As a side note, the smaller devs don't seem to be having any problems with Wii, only the big ones have. Why the difference?

@Luthor: Oh you meant system power. LOL. I thought you meant different kind of power.