Holy...

Eidos is still around? 

Are they actually making games these days or are they still just milking the Tombraider franchise?

I would have to agree.

Wii has a WW installed base larger than 360's at this point, yet it still is selling less software. Granted, there have been very few quality 3rd party titles, but, the one that are there need to sell.

I think they will though. GHIII, even at such a high cost is doing well. Wii has 3 3rd party million sellers. There are some more quality titles coming out this holiday (Rayman 2, MohHeros 2, RE:UC, Lara Croft:AE, Trauma Center:NB, Zack&Wiki) just to name a couple. Hopefully, these will sell really well.

Doooooooom?

I've been thinking this Christmas would prove crucial to how third parties are going to view the Wii for a long time now. There is a glut of big-name games set for release and their success is no-doubt crucial to tackling the myth of whether only Nintendo games sell on their platform.

However, I think it's only the most pesismistic of publishers who don't already see the Wii as the most profitable platform. We've already seen some incredible sales for games which will no doubt greatly exceed their developement costs (Red Steel, RRR, Resident Evil 4, Trauma Centre, SonicATSR's, Dragon Quest Swords, MySims). I mean, has there been a GOOD third party game flop on the Wii yet? (I think it's too soon to point the finger at Z&W btw).

And even with all this said, the Wii developement costs are still about a third of it's HD counterparts, so even if a game doesn't sell as well as it did on Xbox 360, it could well still end up making alot more profit, which is surely all that matters.

I'm eagerly looking forward to what is seemingly the third parties second wave of games. The Wii is now a success, it's proven third parties can have success on it, but ultimately the third parties are going to be stuffed if they keep making ports and the such.

 EDIT: I don't think the issue here is the quantity of software sold (The Wii's sold more software first year then the Xbox 360 did first year), I think it's just that Nintendo seem to get alot of those sales.

Well, on Wii, they are releasing/released:
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Escape from Bug Island

So... they need to prepare for disappointment would be a severe understatement considering their line up on the Wii.

Although I do hope those third parties who are publishing good games on the Wii will get their just rewards.

Tomb Raider anniversary only did 10k on its first week on the xbox 360 (and 4k on its second week)... most people already own the game on other platforms i guess (pc, ps2) so i wouldn't expect very good sales on the wii version.

They should be very happy if the Wii edition does 100k.

I'm going to be blunt ... If you want to see good sales on the Wii release a good game on the Wii. Third parties (for the most part) have ignored the Wii and therefore shouldn't get angry when the only company that is producing a steady stream of high quality Wii games is gaining all of the sales.

The Wii actually has had one major third-party release: Guitar Hero 3. And thus far, all evidence points to Wii GH3 outselling PS2 GH3, which is quite an accomplishment.

I really don't think you can look at Z&W as anything other than an anomaly. Point-and-click adventure games aren't big sellers, no matter the platform.

There is a huge advantage to the 360's market share that partially explains its great software sales. It has been out, and the higher quality 3rd party software released for it has been well spaced out. There has been a pretty steady stream of high quality 3rd party software for the 360 since it was about 10 months old, and most titles have had a lot of hype and time to sell before the next was released.

Part of the problem with the Wii is that there was a huge drought of good 3rd party stuff, then a huge influx. And now people are judging the 3rd party sales at a time when Nintendo just released a very high quality game (Metroid Prime 3) and is on the verge of releasing possibly its best game in a decade (Super Mario Galaxy). When Halo 3 was released, all 3rd party software on the 360 underperformed. SMG will likely have the same affect, making November a *very bad* month to release SMG.

At this point, it's already clear that 3rd party games can do quite well on the Wii.  Better than the PS3, anyhow.  Understandably, Eidos wants Nintendo to do everything they can to encourage success for 3rd party games (ensuring enough production of discs, etc) during the holiday season because it will have a big effect on their bottom line.  As much as he wants to make people (especially Nintendo) think that they could ruin their empire this holiday if Eidos games don't sell well enough, the simple fact is that Nintendo has already entrenched itself well enough to earn a lot of good third party support coming up.

Right now, it's saturated, however.

Trauma Center : New Blood, wont hit a million but it should do 350-500K WW. Considering its DS roots, should turn a tidy profit.

Rayman 2, MohHeros 2, RE:UC should hit 1M WW easily. With MOH:H2 having a chance to crack the 1M N.A barrier for third parties.