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Game Devs Migrating Toward iPhone, Away From Wii
A new report by Game Developer Research reveals that the number of developers working on games for the iPhone continues to rise, roughly doubling in number from last year. At the same time, the amount of work done on games for Nintendo's Wii dropped significantly:
"Just over 70 percent of developers said they were developing at least one game for PC or Mac (including browser and social games), rising slightly from last year; 41 percent reported working on console games. Within that latter group, Xbox 360 was the most popular system with 69 percent of console developers targeting it, followed by 61 percent for PlayStation 3. While those console figures stayed within a few percent of last year's results, the change in Wii adoption was much more significant: reported developer support for the system dropped from 42 percent to 30 percent of console developers, supporting numerous publishers' claims of a recent softening of the Wii market."
Well, it's not completely wrong. :) ).
We did some video games on Nintendo DS, it was easier for us to get a Wii (because we didn't have to do all the paperwork again and Nintendo knew us already) so we tried that.
But it didn't work so well. If you don't sell more than 2000 or 3000 games on WiiWare, you don't get any money (and... we got nothing yet
We tried a game on DSi (DSiWare) and our engine was already cross-platform so we ported it on the iPhone.
I don't know if every studio like us did the same thing, but the Wii is dead. We don't know yet if the iPhone will be a viable platform for us, our game isn't out yet.
I largely agree with your statement, but I would imagine that there is are least *some* developers jumping ship from Wii (or, more likely, DS/DSi) to iPhone/iPod. And they're probably making games for the older consumers that Nintendo has been courting in recent years.
For all the talk of Apple's restrictive policies, Nintendo's stance towards developers is almost draconian by comparison. Development kits for Nintendo hardware run into the thousands of $$$ -- assuming Nintendo even sells you a devkit, which they won't unless you're an established developer or you're being published by someone with a known track record. And unlike Apple which takes 30% off the top, Nintendo's cut is largely determined on a case-by-case basis (EA probably gets a much more lucrative deal than a small publisher.
Exactly... if you program something for the iPhone, and Apple approves it, it's on the store. On the big 3 consoles, even if you're an amateur studio who gets their game published on there, you're still semi-pro - I guess a bit less so on XBLA since they're pretty open.
I wouldn't be surprised if the raw number of developers was even 10x higher on iPhone - it's somewhere between computer and console in terms of available software. Now if companies like Capcom, Konami, Square-Enix, Sega, Namco, etc started dropping their other projects in favour of the iPhone, then it would be a story.