I agree that Nintendo needed to avoid a drought at all costs, and having a twelve month period with nothing big has hurt them; but I also think there were two things that hit them where they didn't expect it.

First, Animal Crossing City Folk and WiiMusic failed. Nintendo probably thought these two games could have carried the Wii through that year; Animal Crossing sold 10M on the DS, and WiiMusic was another innovative title in the Wii___ line. If these games had succeeded, then there wouldn't have been a drought, or at least only a small one at the beginning of the year.

Second, third party resistance. Reggie has commented on how upset he is that third parties still don't put their best games on the Wii. Their strategy probably involved putting their best stuff out in the first two years, building such a powerful user base that third parties would have no choice but to migrate, filling in any gaps in Nintendo's lineup; unfortunately, it seems they underestimated the resistance to change.

So yes, having such a gap was a mistake, but it seems that when Nintendo was planning the line-up, they didn't foresee this gap.

Hmmm I actually think that Wii Music and Animal Crossing did not fail. Both games did not meet expectations, though. I am making this point because both games sold very good ( AC almost 3.5mil, Wii Music 2.7mil ), just not good enough or let's say Nintendo good enough. I think Nintendo was expecting both games to sell at the very least in the 5 million range. Unfortunately for them it did not happen.

That's absolutely right.   One would reasonably expect, and I'm sure Nintendo did to, that by that time 3rd parties would be heavily supporting the clear market leader.    While Wii has definitely gotten the larger volume of 3rd party titles, it lacks all those news worthy headline titles that would have filled in the gaps between the 1st party titles.     Even GCN had better support for those titles.     In hindsight, I (oddly) agree with Pachter.   Nintendo should have spaced SMG, SSBB, MKW and WiiFit out more.       The fact that Wii Music and Animal Crossing both badly underperformed (sold well but under performed) sure didn't help any either.

The Wii was created to be a "gateway drug" to gaming. There are so many people out there that have never purchased a gaming console before that now have a Wii. Even if it is just for Wii Fit or Wii Sports. These same people may even purchase other consoles in the furture if they like this. X360, PS3 or even a new Wii when that comes out. Nintendo is trying to pull in new console gamers.

Seconded.

Really, I'm surprised so many of you are agreeing with this.

Who knows what caused the drought of 1st party Nintendo games (I suspect it has to do with Wii Motion+ causing delays), but hopefully Nintendo has learned a valuable lesson that they can't depend on 3rd party developers. Sony and Microsoft have to rely on 3rd party developers to maintain their consoles' momentum (they have very few internal software that push hardware), Nintendo thought that establishing a large install base would attract support when it was Nintendo's refusal to conform to the Gaming Industry's demands.

As Wii sales continue to rise, we'll see them get even more desperate. Starving the Wii did nothing thanks to Nintendo relying on internal support to keep momentum, and more gamers waking up to see that in their view they're just idiot consumers who are to be exploited. If you think calling New Super Mario Bros: Wii a "non-game" was bad, just wait until the stunts they'll pull next year.

green-ink poisoning

Wii didn't have a drought, they released Wii Music and Animal Crossing for Q4,Q1,Q2.

Just like they released Brawl and crew in 08.

Just that Wii Music and Animal Crossing weren't good games.

Hind sight is a lovely thing... Good work there Pachter, Got anything else we can file under "Durrrrr!"

There's another possibility, which I believe is why third parties have been having so much trouble lately; Nintendo isn't trying to bring in new people to gaming, but to bring gaming to new people.

Gaming has gotten into a rut where companies keep making the same games, which sell to the same people, and keeps other people out; once they find something successful, they just keep milking it.  Third parties are hoping that the new breed of fans brought in by the Wii will eventually "graduate" to more serious game, but they fail to realize that the existing games are what kept them out in the first place, and the newcomers expect gaming to change to suit them, not the other way around.