Call of Duty has Complex controls? LOL. I've seen enough twelve year olds and below playing these games in malls with ease. Barely any learning curve at all.

They put visual crack/cocaine in the games.

The shape of Metroids, Mushrooms, and Triforce symbols all stimulate the addictive side of the human mind.

While NSMB wii has sold more then Call of Duty MW2, the game has still sold a HUGE amount of copies.

My take on what you wrote is that there are a variety of demographics that video games can appeal to. Nintendo makes games that appeal to the greatest number of people due to being accesible games, part of which is simple gameplay, cartoon violence, and local multiplayer. The games that Nintendo is moving towards are games like Wii Fit and Wii Sports. However, while there is a market for those kinds of games, they don't appeal to me, and I am also part of a market.

I do agree that making a game for a specific market can effect the sales of the software, i.e. a fantasy RPG limits the number of sales. At the same time, developers hire artists and developers with their own inspirations to make a great game. Ask yourself the game that you would want to develp, would it be a Just Dance type of game or Mass Effect? Developers can still make money doing something they love doing.

I believe publishers lose money by making too many gambles on devs without the talent. This is good for the video game industry because developers will hopefully learn from their mistakes and eventually learn how to make great games, but it's bad for the bottom line. There's also a train of thought that the first game in a series doesn't necessarily need to be huge. It is an investment into a series/brand where success can mean huge sales in the future and make a money on sequels with relatively lower dev costs ( if they use the same engine).

Also sales are complicated, since advertising and branding play a huge part  in the success of a game. There are games that fit your description that don't sell well. Also, I would argue that casual gamers tend to purchase new games on average more then the hardcore gamer. This is becuase a more serious' gamer is more likely to go to a Gamestop/EB games (since they target these types of gamers). Casual gamers would buy a game from BestBuy and Wallmart, which until recently only sold new games.

At the end of the day, Nintendo expanded the gaming market and with good marketing, taking advantage of branding, and creating new ways of gaming were able to create a demand for their software.

That's why it's so popular, there's a fairly low skill/complexity barrier in CoD.

Guess which one is most popular.

Guess which one is least popular.

Guess which one has the most rabid, vocal fanbase.

Hahahaha that graph is damn hilarious. And there's my point :p

i think it's because of their audience, they have a massive audience consisting of core gamers, casual gamers and a lot of the older audience

Games which nail gameplay to such an extent and find a wide market are so rare that usually if a person or developer releases one they will probably never release one again. Its the hardest thing to do and yet they keep pulling it off. Its easier to make a game like Mass Effect because the rules and expectations are written for you than it is to continually make Mario the number one selling identity on the home consoles.

Nintendo are simply the best developers for nailing the gameplay and their 'flops' sell over a couple of million. You can ask why Naughty Dog games or Lionhead games etc don't sell as well and the answer is that they are simply nowhere near as talented at creating good gameplay.

Actually, EVE is about as popular as LotR Online last I found any numbers. Possibly higher. PotBS is way behind both though. So guessing which one is the least popular is not going to lead you to the conclusion you really want. I do love the graph though. I laugh everytime I see it.