The 3rd party quagmire

It's a problem Nintendo has had sense the 64 days. No one company can make enough games to fill a consoles life cycle. After the cost of cartages caused many third party games developers to make move there games to the Playstaion Nintendo systems have had to survive on Nintendo titles. This problem continues to haunt the Wii.

The problem is not an easy one to solve. There are now several things working ageist the Wii. One is the fact that third party games have not sold well on Nintendo system in a while. There is no prof that there will. Another is the Wii's market. No one knows what kind of gamers make up the most of the Wii owners. Last is the challenge of porting. When making a game for the Wii it is not easy to move it to or from another system.

It was once said that people buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo games. When looking at sales numbers for the Wii it is not hard to see

Top 10 Wii games via VG charts:

1. Wii Sports, 25.23m
2. Wii Play, 13.26m
3. Super Mario Galaxy, 6.72m
4. Mario Kart Wii, 6.04m
5. Super Smash Bros Brawl, 5.97m
6. Mario Party 8, 5.35m
7. Wii Fit, 5.24m
8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, 4.90m
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, 4.68m
10. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, 2.90m

Only the last two games not made by Nintendo. Compare this to the other two systems.


Top 10 Xbox 360 games via VG charts:

1. Halo 3, 8.02m
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, 6.17m
3. Grand Theft Auto IV, 5.56m
4. Gears Of War, 5.25m
5. Forza Motorsport 2, 3.92m
6. Assassins Creed, 3.79m
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, 3.12m
8. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, 2.50m
9. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, 2.45m
10. Madden NFL 08, 2.31m

Top PS3 Games via VG charts:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV, 4.04m
2. Motorstorm, 3.38m
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, 3.35m
4. Resistance: Fall of Man, 2.90m
5. Assassins Creed, 2.73m
6. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, 2.06m
7. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, 1.85m
8. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, 1.72m
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, 1.63m
10. FIFA 08, 1.50m

Microsoft only has 3 games on the 360 list and one is made by a 3rd party. Sony has 4 games on the PS3 list. The next thing to look at are the sales numbers. Few Wii games have sold more than 500,000. Even good Wii games have little chance of selling well.

When looking at the Wii's market share it is huge. The problem is telling what theses people bought a Wii for. Some got it just to play Nintendo games. Others just for Wii Sports. Some want RPGs other shooters. Who do you make the game for?

Because porting games is not easy, Wii games have to be built just for the Wii. What games are ported are overlooked regardless of quality. Either way this means it's not going to be easy to make multi-plattform games for Wii and the Wii sales maybe all a 3rd party gets.

Although it may not look good there is still hope. Some big games are still coming. If they get the right advertisement and gamers give them a chance more can come. We can only hope that both gamers and 3rd parties are willing to not give up on the Wii yet.

Next Time: Wii need to learn from Steam