Is it? The overall third party sales are higher, and the costs are (much) lower. Revenue is probably lower, but I doubt it's that much lower. Granted, there are more Wii games made, but the vast majority of them are very cheap attempts to cash in on the casual craze, a very large number of them with their budget's combined would be less than a handful of the very expensive HD games combined. CoD:MW2 cost $200mill including marketing, GTAIV cost around $100mill, the highest costing Wii game ever was SMG at $20mill, and most are far far cheaper.

The average PS3 game costs $8.9mill and needs half a million to make a profit. That barrier is much lower on Wii.

http://www.destructoid.com/500k-sales-of-each-ps3-game-needed-for-profit-28232.phtml

M = mediocre

Totally agree

I gave average cost of games on PS3 and the amount they need to sell, but that was ignored. I pointed out the extremes of costs on one side only to demonstrate that the fact that the Wii has a tonne of games made for it wouldn't likely actually add up to higher costs or investment in Wii overall for third parties than the other two consoles. They make a lot of shovelware for Wii, and a small number of more expensive titles on the others.

I don't know if third parties overall have profited more on Wii, it's hard to say and it's also unfair to average both costs and revenues as that hides the variability between games. I don't think the approach third parties have to Wii, that is releasing tonnes of shovelware in the hopes that the games get picked up by a poorly informed consumer, is likely to yield much profit, nor do I think that making 'casual games' without understanding your audience will yield much either.

But I do think there's plenty of profit made on third party Wii games, and the barrier for financial success is obviously lower.

Games like Gears of War, Fire Emblem, Uncharted are 'second party' that is to say, made by companies owned by the hardware manufacturer, but released under the brand name of the manufacturer...so some of the money is split but I don't think they pay liscencing fees.

Casual/party/fitness 3rd party titles on Wii sell well, they sell poorly on PS360 no matter who makes them.

Shooter/Action/RPG etc 3rd party titles sell well on PS360 and sell average to poor on Wii.

Know your market and develop software accordingly; It's not that hard.

If you're a 3rd party dev and you wouldn't make a casual/party/fitness title if your life depended on it then you should concentrate on PS360+PC. If you are happy to develop for all playgrounds then you can make successfull games for all systems: Casual/Party/Fitness for Wii, Shooter for 360, (non-gimped) Hack'n'Slash for PS3, RTS and shooter for PC, platformers and sports for all (except PC), and RPGs for EVERYONE. If you're not EA or Activision then you might need to concentrate on only 1 or 2 genres, rather than the whole lot.

RPG FTW!

pachter probably has an account on vgc,i wonder who it is?

The problem ain't that 3rd parties aren't selling, it's that good third party games aren't selling. By good i mean good... in our eyes, the enthusiasts who frequent this site.

Gears is a second party title but third party owned (Epic owns gears IP not MS and Epic isnt owned by MS), much like mass effect as both are contracted deals.

Uncharted is 1st party Nautydog is owned by Sony and the IP is owned by sony, you were prolly thinking of insomniac as 2nd party.

From what Pachter replied it would be interesting to see just what percentage of Wii software sold was total shovelware and fitness software. From his comments and from the top 20 lists we see periodically it is clear that these titles really eat into the 3rd party pie. I for one have never seen a console have such a high ratio of shovelware titles. The thing is when shovelware titles like Deal or No Deal or Biggest Loser make it into the top 30 at christmas this means shovelware on the Wii is flourishing.

What we know about top 30 titles.

At least 15 are Nintendo titles (including Mario and Sonic)
At least 3 are Fitness titles (WiiFit, EA Sports Active and Jillian Michaels)
2 are discount shovelware (Deca Sports, Game Party)
2 are TV tie in shovelware (Deal or No Deal, Biggest Loser)
3 are Music titles (Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Just Dance)

Remainder of known top 30
Lego Star Wars
Madden 10
Tiger Woods 10
Cabelas Big Game Hunter

That leaves 2 titles in the top 30 we dont know.