WiiLoaded.com - Wii Forum and News

while only one analysts opinion: i wonder what effect it will have on future third party support.



Kaufman Bros. equity research analyst Todd Mitchell has described current interest in the Wii by third party publishers and the mass media as “irrational exuberance”, in a new note to investors following a rise in Electronic Arts stock.

Mitchell’s comments follow widespread reports of Electronic Arts’ initial success with Wii specific titles, and the company’s announcement that it would further increase support for the format. This has coincided with continued commercial success for the format, which remains sold out across the world.

While praising Electronic Arts’ investment in Asia, online, massively multiplayer online games and mobile titles, Mitchell comments: “We are getting tired of what we believe is irrational exuberance about the Wii. Yes, it is popular, and yes, it is taking share, but one investor recently told us how he thought it would revolutionize the way Americans exercise...”.

Mitchell goes on to argue that third party publishers may not benefit greatly from the Wii’s success, questioning whether it has really enlarged the market or instead “further segment[ed] it to Nintendo’s advantage”.

While admitting that the truth may lay somewhere between these two extremes, Mitchell goes on to ask the question: “Did it [the Wii] enlarge the market by more than the amount of share Nintendo was able to take from the other publishers by dominating sales on the popular platform?”

The unusually negative comments appear largely aimed at the profitability of the format for third parties, with Mitchell indicating that Nintendo’s own software share gains are likely to be sustainable.

Positing that the Wii’s life cycle may be shorter than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, he suggests that this may also make third parties more reluctant to support the format, while allowing Nintendo to widen the gap in perceived quality between its own titles and those from external publishers.

“Yes, the Wii has caused the overall pie to get bigger”, says Mitchell, “but the independent publishers may be getting a proportionately smaller slice.”

source: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_in...tory=13537

I disagree with almost everything he said. The Wii has increased the size of the gaming market, not just further segmented it. Consider the fact that my mom, who dislikes any video game other than solitaire, loves playing Wii.

If third party developers are getting the short end of the stick right now it's because of crappy ports, not because of any inherent disadvantage third party devs have on the Wii. Sure, the first party games will probably always be king on Nintendo consoles, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of room for good third party games (consider RE4 for GC).

And as far as the Wii's lifecycle goes, I see no reason that it would age poorly. If you aren't concerned about the less-than-stellar graphics now, why would you be in five years? On the other hand the other consoles are going to be looking very dated in a couple of years because their graphics won't be top of the line anymore, and that's more important to their success.

/2 cents

i agree cybertron, i may not agree with most of article but i do think its a good read

Why is everyone hating on Nintendo? What ever happened to "congradulations"?

There all jealous.

:l

Jealous. Wii will show them >.>

Haters. All of them.

Like Marvel vs Capcom said "we are True Believers". Let them have their say/opinion. That's all it is and only time will tell.

i wonder what analysts will do a year from now when the wii has outsold both next gen consoles and is well on its way to heralded PS2 status

sing a different tune perhaps

It's official. Wii kicks @$$.

They always do after they see that they were wrong.

i can kinda understand where they're coming from with ninty sorta making the quality of their games to be vastly superior to 3rd part games, and right now that's really understandable. i haven't bought anything not made by ninty for my wii other than some acsessories. both my games are ninty made, and for a reason; i don't want rehashed ports of ps2/xbox games. some of the games being released are ground-up titles, and those games are fairly decent games. even dome of the ports are doing well, but because they are more extended and enhanced versions of previous games than simple ports. then there are ninty's games that come out every few months and everyone buys them. that's because they are guaranteed to be good. when was the last time ninty came out with a cad game? people only buy what they want to play, and if the games aren't better than the competeition, of coarse they won't sell. for Msoft and sony 3rd party is important because all their developers are 3rd party, even if they are owned by a one of the hardware manufacturers. take too human, H3, lair, MGS4, SMG, and RE4Wii for example. H3, MGS4, and SMG are all under the power of their respective console manufacturers and are all big or if not the biggest titles on each platform. too human (originally a GCN game) and lair are really big titles for their platforms and are free from the grip of their console manufacturers, but aren't in it for just money, they are trying to make awesome games (and are doing great). RE4Wii is a port of a previous-gen game, but it's being made to take full advantage of everything and is the title version of the game to show what it was meant to be in the end and will likely sell a crapload of coppies (especially to those of us who have some extra GCN games to get rid of and a gamestop/eb games to get it from after trading the oldies in, including the GCN version). these are the directions developers should take, although for ubisoft and EA, and endless flow of midiocre niche games is apperently sufficient as well.

It kinda of is and isn't Nintendo's fault about poor 3rd quality games. It isn't because companies choose to just port their older games than making something new and original and chances are people have already played, rented, or owned that game and have no interest in getting it. It is Nintendo's fault about them being too secretive and not giving the 3rd party teams all the kits they need to make those new original games we are waiting for.

i have rayman and madden, both top quality 3rd party titles, of course i also have call of duty and ice age 2, so i guess its a wash

There about to get the best 3rd party game, Spiderman 3. =)

And BT2 was a 3rd Party, and I <3'd it.

BT2 = Budokai Tenkaichi, Cloud?

Anyway, I don't see why this guy is bashing Nintendo. They are kicking the competition's posteriority right now. The Wii is going to dominate this generation, even though the Xbox 360 released a year before and the PS3 a two-day head-start.

Go, Wii, GO!

yeah, probably, though i dont see why all three consoles cant be sucessfull