Wii success = third-party woes?

Nintendo used to rule the gaming market, now they lag far, far behind. I'm hoping they can pull through. The Wii looks like it'll be a great system when you've got a lot of people over.

Erm no meantion of square in that article and I like the gc being 'distant' 3rd, there wasn't that much in it between the xbox and cube by the end but whatever its behind us now. I don't think Nintendo have a problem with the initial 3rd party support, they seem to have plenty. Lets hope they can keep it up though :).

I agree with rob3nelson, 'cuz PS3 will have all the games like... like, wait a second.

who cares? Most of those games suck anyway, and there'll be plenty of good first-party games to go around until developers start catching up.

Lol !!! Poor Nintendo fanboys eagerly anticipating their dream console will now have nothing to play once it finally comes out for Christmas. (I couldn't have thought up a better script myself.) This just goes to show you, that once again for Nintendo, it's too little and too late.

We can't wait . In the TGS 06 we can see the REVOLUTION!

I can't wait... I hope we can see something tangible in the TGS...

There are some promising games for Wii launch from 3rd party, like: Red Steel (Hope it doesn't flop), Dragon Quest Swords (Seems to be SquareEnix 1st ever launch game for a system) , Super Swing Golf Pangya (DOA characters), Super Monkey Ball (With its fanbase), Madden (Huge fanbase and seems hyped for its control - a rare sign for sports game to get notice on Nintendo's system) etc. Along with its is Nintendo first part like Zelda Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3. Strong lineup for launch for sure. Now hope those 1st party won't hurt 3rd party sales.

Don't write it off yet, neither hail its success. Personally I'm skeptical about the Wii because I don't want it to flop, but if its a bad system, that is what it will do. I don't believe Nintendo would release another bad system because coming in last again could very well lead Nintendo out of the hardware biz. I'll get one, play it, and hope it doesn't go the way of the Dreamcast.

"What is the launch going to look like? From what I hear there's not going to be much out there. Is this going to be the worst launch in history as far as games go? anyone have any good news on this? I hope so." Zelda: TP, MP3, Red Steel, Dragon Quest Swords, Wii Sports and a bevy of other games at launch. Project H.A.M.M.E.R., Disaster: Day of Crisis, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, Elebits, FF:CC, Excite Truck, Super Monkey Ball, WarioWare, Sonic: Wildfire, Call of Duty 3, within the first year (some of them possibly at launch). Anything else?

I feel it could be like another GCN. Looks great but ultimately, crap. Ofcourse I have faith in Nintendo thus, I think it will probablly take back supreme command. PS3 will flop and Xbox 360 is a flop so I think the path is clear is Nintendo can really deliever. Of all the games shown for the Wii the only one thats really put to its potential is Wii Sports. The rest look as though they were made for a Xbox or something.

"One tiny problem: nintendo was 3rd last generation; they sold less than 20 million units world wide. The xbox sold just under 20 million in the U.S. alone. And your statement "gamecube's game sale money total. . .," despite being ambiguous, is also incorrect. And the "lost 4 billion" part is true, but keep in mind that was on hardware. Sony initially lost half that amount with the PS2, but both the Xbox and PS2 cleaned house off of royalties from the software." Looks like YOU'RE the one who shouldn't be trying to correct people since the GCN has sold nearly 21 million units WORLD WIDE, and the XBox has sold a little under 24million WORLD WIDE.

why so much hype, the wii hasn't come out yet , people talk in these post like nintendo have won this next generation; just because the ds is a sucess without a doubt does'nt mean the wii will be one .

You know, some people are so excited for the Wii yet I just can share that excitement. I"ve owned a gamecube since launch yet I haven't played a game for the system now in over 7 or 8 months, why? cause there isn't any games to play. It's now sitting under my bed collecting dust. I feel the same is going to happen with the Wii, especially with its remote control, which I find too gimmicky. Maybe I'm overreacting, or maybe I'm right.

Well this could go either way... 1. good for nintendo bcos there's less competition for their 1st party games so more revenue for them... or 2. bad for nintendo bcos less Wii's will sell... Personally I hated the gamecube but I'm the first person at my EB to preorder the Wii... (And the 2nd for the PS3... and of course I LOVE my X360... now my only decision is whether to preorder the Core 2 Duo or wait a little while...) ie DEATH TO FANBOYS!!!

If I remember correctly, the origional PlayStation had only one "killer-app" game at its launch: the origional Tekken. Developers warmed up to the PS1 AFTER its successful launch and its sales spiked when Square announced Final Fantasy VII for it. Can history repeat itself for the Wii? I'm just saying that it's possible. Wether that becomes a reality remains to be seen.

im not getting a wii anyways so im fine with it

Why are people considering wii a sucess already? Because the media seems to like it? Moving your wrist is will make a game more fun?

i can't say much since i'm not following the Wii. i don't see how they can't have a plan for the holidays

shouldnt games be less than 50 bux cuz its basically an xbox with a motion senser and as technology advances old tech gets cheaper to make

This is okay for Nintendo. There will be plenty of retro, A.K.A antique games porting over to Wii. You can stop playing them on your aging consol and re-buy them for Wii. See, lots of games to Repay-to-Play.

The problem that this article is facing is that Wii has a lot of support from japan, especially Square enix, Namco, and other well known developers. Also this article failed to mention that EA, THQ, Activision and others will have launch titles or games released during the first quarter of 2007. Therefore theStreet.com can stop reporting false tales to make news.

landau492 houston we have a problem , the wii is just another gamecube If you actually read the artictle- 3rd parties weren't going to pass on the Wii, they are actually in trouble because they might miss out on the what seems like the hottest platform - The Wii.

@Messin18 You want smart? Smart was Unreal Championship 2 delaying their release until after the holidays and the Halo 2 juggernaut. As strong as that franchise was, it didn't stand a chance against Halo 2, and they knew it. Delay, get some hype going since Halo 2 quieted down some, and then release the game. But if you have over a hundred new games to choose from, a few of which will be blockbuster, must-have titles, and then you have to compete with the hundreds of games already out, new and used (and the used games usually have a nice sale associated with them), then your one, singular title is going to get drowned out. New games with bigger marketing budgets will overshadow you, used games will undercut you, and you're just another title trying to stand out *somehow.* Unless you're a blockbuster, releasing a game during the holiday season is risky business. Beyond Good & Evil and the original Prince of Persia didn't do nearly as well as they deserved with their holiday releases. If you're at launch, you still have that blockbuster to worry about, but you've got less games on your system to compete with. Hell, gift giving non-gamers are more likely to pick you up simply because you're a game to go with a system... Its still a risk, but it's lower and has a greater chance of payoff than waiting until a system is more mature (unless you released a 360 game in Japan :) ).

The Wii is going to fail, just like the DS! Oh... wait

You are wrong Urbanmessiah. Third party developers are very smart. Lets say Wii days AMAZEING and sells a few million console. Lets do some math. PS2 has 100 million consoles. It's pretty much standard that a game has to sell around 1 million copies to make aprofit. So for a game to be profitable for a game developer for a PS2 only 1% of PS2 owners need to buy it. This holiday sesaon as a game developer you'd need almost 50% of wii owners to buy your game. This doesn't happen often so its obviouse to see why third parties are smart to wait until the console sales are alot higher. Nintendo has no option but to release games at launch because they need people to buy the hardware. Third parties aren't stupid and they don't need to blow money at launch and will wait to it become more profitable.

"3rd party games skipped out on the Wii because the Wii is GaRbAgE! It is just a cheap gimmick that will get old really quick. It's great for little kids though, kids don't care about graphics or the type of games that will be showcased on the XBOX 360 and the PS3. Mario and Zelda have run their course for the older generation, now where playing GTA and God of War. 3rd party gamers had the right idea, good job." I see, I see. I guess a majority of gamers are kids then. Because right now......Mario for the DS is topping the sales charts....and the games you mentioned aren't. Man, those kids are smart.

I'm getting a feeling of Dejavu.

chikahiro94's got it right...Third party developers missed the boat to make a killing this holiday season. Its not going to be a crippling blow to the third parties that missed out, but it will hurt the quarter after the holiday season. Who knows what could happen with third parties and the Wii if its successful? Will Rockstar come out with a Wii GTA game? -=x

Landau, you're an idiot. I'm looking at a Gamecube right now, and I don't see motion sensitive controllers, or a sensor bar. I'm sorry, am I missing something or did you manage to pick up Gamecube:Special Edition? I honestly wouldn't care if the Wii got a new game every 3 months, even though anyone who hasn't been living in a cave for the last couple of months can see how many developers are jumping on the Wii Bandwagon. Unlike another certain next-gen console, Nintendo games have a certain thing called replayability. I don't slap 50 bucks down on a Nintendo game, only to bring it back to Gamestop 2 days later to trade it in for $20.

Proof that the street.com knows NOTHING about gaming is the fact that they predicted stores like gamestop would make huge profits and you should buy the stock. The reason they predicted this was that xbox 360 hardware sales. Well the if the morons had known anything about the games industry they'd have known that Gamespot had already sold out their pre-orders months before ($50 down which is also around the profit margin they get per hardware sold) and that those profits were already reported. Since then stock has dropped over 40%.

@messin18 Well, if you can get in early on a console, you have less competition in any given genre, and its a good time to try and start a new franchise at that. A good game at launch means you stand a good chance of selling one of (insert title name) for every (or every other, or every third) system sold. That's not bad at all! Also, since there's not a glut of titles yet, you stand out by just existing (sad as that sounds) - unlike the second or third year when you have to fight with dozens upon dozens of other titles in other genres at all different price points for the same customer. You're probably getting extra help from the console developer to make launch, and that early in the game the budget is nothing like it would be later on (since you're not fully taking advantage of the system, graphically - all those art resources add up). And I'm pretty sure no games have run up $100 million budgets yet (I'll assume that was a typo).

houston we have a problem , the wii is just another gamecube

few launch titiles what consle didn't (not inculdeing backwards compatbilty)

Thestreet.com knows NOTHING about gaming. This article is so bogus it isn't even funny. They think because wii has a good e3 buzz that it's actually going to hurt third party developers? UM NO. Nintendo consoles have almost always been mainly supported by first party games and not many third party games ever since square started developing their games for Sony. The ultimate trump to show this article is bull **** is third party developers usually wind up losing a lot of money when they release games too early in a consoles life cycle. In the first year or two not enough people own the console to warrant spending 100+ million to develop a game for it. Third party developers are smart for holding of on development until the console installation base is higher. Why even waste gamespot space with this stupid article. and to patchyfando, your post proves YOU know jack squat about hardware. Third party developers have had wii dev kits in their hands and know what it can and can't do. They are also not TOOL fanboy's who think a console will do well because of the brand name. Yeah and gamers do decide what console wins but when the majority of gamers simply buy licensed games and sequel after sequel..... who cares. The message gamers are sending to developers is they want the same old thing.

I think Zelda and a few of those other games will keep us busy for a while. I actually hate it when too many good games come out at once - I buy them all, and never get to play each one fully because I'm so greedy - I keep moving ahead and buying new ones....

serves them right, since they didn't beleive in nintendo then why should they get an early success from the beginning it's their own short sightedness

Who gives a toss? It's launching with Zelda.

OMG! This sounds like how the Gamecube is now. Living almost solely on first party games. BARELY living on AVERAGE first party games.

"most recently software giant Electronic Arts, which announced four new Wii games in development." I think they mean 6 (which are all awesome).

Meh, I think the wii will have a good enough launch lineup to where 3rd party developers can make quality games and get them out in time to reap benefits from the console. They just won't be launch titles.

this goes to show that ALL third party publishers know jack squat about hardware. They should all shut their traps and make kick ass games. I'm sick and tired of these "developers" always giving their 2 cents about the industry and how it is run. It's us... the gamers who ultimately decide who wins or loses!

I'm just psyched that the Big N had such a brilliant showcase at E3. Third party companies weren't exactly rooting real hard for Nintendo before that and now they're shocked at the amazing response from gamers after getting their hands-on. Now it's time for Third-Parties to play catch up and get some good software out on the platform. Which WILL probably happen now. Just think what would have happened if Nintendo had had the kind of showing that Sony did......

Ha, this is actually good news in disguise, since E3 for Nintendo was a hit that got publishers and developers a lot more interested (EA gives Wii a 6-pack), and since then several new games are now announced. I'm glad Ubisoft went ahead with Red Steel early on.

I don't really care about price since I can get a premium 360 for $180 but I will still get the Wii. Don't really like the name though since wii means yes in french

Call of Duty on the Wii!!! I'm getting my helmet!

Good thing the DS isnt crap

if the ds is crap then the wii will be crap

like the ds, first party titles will flood and dominate and pull nintendo to first place in the next gen race.

Sony is in biiiiiig trouble, i like what they have, but everything from pricing to release to tech is shooting themselves in the foot. it's going to end up being a NEO GEO