Are Game Publishers Late To the (Wii and DS) Game?

simoniker writes "A new 'Analyze This' feature on Gamasutra examines analysts' views on the rise of Nintendo's Wii and DS, and how well game publishers have reacted to it, with Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter commenting: 'It's hard to criticize anyone for putting too much faith in the PS3, as most [publishers] haven't created "cutting edge" titles yet for that platform. Most of the PS3 titles so far have been perennial titles, like Madden, Tony Hawk, etc ... I'd say that most failed to capitalize on the DS and Wii opportunity. The exception on the DS side is THQ, which has made every game it can for the platform. On the Wii side, Ubisoft took a big chance by making ten games for the [Wii] launch window, and it has performed very well, so far. I think that the others will catch up no later than early next year.'"

Comments

Re:Duh, when game companies have to innovate..

[tim_darklighter]

The result is that you can't just make a game with slightly bigger levels, more guns, and slightly better graphics and call it "new". And New Super Mario Bros. is the name of one of the (if not *the*) best selling game on the DS. ;)

Re:Not really

[vonPoonBurGer]

The fact that most publishers completely ignored the GameCube while Nintendo released some very good games, means that obviously most of the games that are being bought are going to be from Nintendo. One notable exception is Resident Evil. Same thing seems to be happening on the Wii. I disagree completely. The GameCube had little 3rd-party support because it was the runner-up in the last generation of the console wars, selling far less units than the PS2 and original Xbox did over their lifespans. Most 3rd-party developers decided to take a "wait and see" approach with the Wii, because no one was quite sure how it would do. The only major exception was Ubisoft, and they're laughing all the way to the bank now. The Wii has 10.57 million units sold so far, the largest slice of the next-gen pie, and that number is growing faster than the 360 and PS3 combined. At this point all we have seen for the Wii is the tail end of the first round of games, especially considering most publishers and developers were late to start projects for the Wii. With over 10 million units sold, I fully expect to see the first major round of 3rd-party Wii titles appear next year. I mean, seriously, what publisher isn't going to want to take a stab at the gaming dollars behind over 40% of the marketplace? That incentive of being able to tap into a large chunk of the market virtually guarantees that the Wii will enjoy far better 3rd-party support than the GC did.

If you look at why the PS2 was successful, it got to market earlier than its competitors with a good product at a good price. That lead to strong initial sales, which in turn led to a lot of titles being developed for this new system. More titles turned into additional hardware sales, which led to even more developer attention on that platform, and the whole thing snowballed and ultimately 120 million PS2s were sold. The Wii may have been later to market, but at the rate it's outselling PS3 and 360 it will be the most common next-gen console by a significant margin for the Christmas '08 season. That is confirmed to be attracting increased developer attention (see the comments made by the CEO of EA for example), which means we're going to be seeing more 3rd-party titles for the Wii in the future. That in turn will likely lead to increased hardware sales, and so on.

I don't think the Wii will have anywhere near the dominance that the PS2 enjoyed, however. This generation marks the first time that I can think of where the capabilities of the various competitors were split so starkly, while at the same time being somewhat equal in terms of their desirability. The 360 and PS3 are natural extensions of the bigger better faster more mentality, but the Wii is going in a completely different direction, last-gen graphics with a new control scheme. No one's measured it yet to my knowledge, but I suspect there will be a significant amount of overlap between owners of the Wii and "true" next-gen consoles (i.e. 360/PS3). That may have an impact on how gaming dollars get spent down the road. My money's on a rough split between the Wii and the 360, though I'm not sure which will be on top. I'm convinced at this point that the PS3 will be this generation's distant third.