Third Parties to beat Nintendo on Wii?:wii.ign.com

[*NormalGamer*]

wii.ign.com/articles/793/793427p1.html

Third Parties to beat Nintendo on Wii?
Activision CEO thinks the time is right for third-parties to best first-party titles.

by Rob Burman, IGN UK

UK, June 1, 2007 - Activision CEO Robert Kotick has said that third-party publishers can perform well on Wii - particularly compared to GameCube - and that the company is "reinvesting" in Nintendo consoles for the future.

Speaking to investors in a quarterly conference call, Kotick reaffirmed his commitment to Nintendo consoles, explaining that the Wii is set to perform a lot better than the GameCube and, as a result, Activision is "reinvesting against the Nintendo platform in a way that in the last cycle [they] really did not".

He also said that although in previous generations, Nintendo's first-party titles have invariably sold more than third-party games this could be about to change. "For a few generations, Nintendo software was better than third-party software," he said. "When you look at where we are today, we think we're actually in the best position and probably even in a better position than the first-party to leverage our development dollars."

Finally Kotick expressed his excitement about the upcoming Wii version of Guitar Hero III, which is due for release this Autumn. "There probably is no better product to take advantage of the capabilities of the Wii than Guitar Hero," he explained.

*NG*: Great to see third-parties like Activision taking an interesting challenge like this.

[Pilgrim John]

I dunno about this. Nintendo's first-party software isn't a line-up of limp, single-hit games like the Sony and Microsoft brands are. Theirs are almost invincible, unbeatable by even the likes of Megaman, Sonic, or Metal Gear Solid. If ActiVision really believes that they can take on Nintendo on their own system, with just Guitar Hero, they're more than welcome to try.
But they should at least know that they're trying to slay a giant with a pistol.

[gamefreaks365]

Depending on how mass market the Wii actually becomes, there's a chance that he could be right, depending on how you take his statement to mean. If he means that third parties take a majority of sales on the Wii, that's certainly possible.

[Pilgrim John]

gamefreaks365 said:

Depending on how mass market the Wii actually becomes, there's a chance that he could be right, depending on how you take his statement to mean. If he means that third parties take a majority of sales on the Wii, that's certainly possible.

Haven't seen that since... well... ever. Even on NES and Super Nintendo, while games like Megaman and Street Fighter II were selling well, Nintendo games always outsold them. Super Mario Bros. 3 sold, like, over 30 million copies, dinnit?

[*NormalGamer*]

That may be true, John, but I say third-parties need to be given a better chance to shine on a Nintendo console like the Wii, which is probably why Nintendo is releasing less of their first party killer-apps to give third-parties better room for better sales, unlike the GCN era.

I'm already excited enough that Nintendo has a large enough portfolio of best selling first-party franchises for the core audience, VC service for the Retro crowd, as well as their Touch Generations brand for the non-gamer crowd, to sell their console with high sales, even with shortages, to expand the market.

[Pilgrim John]

Oh, I know that. After all, there are plenty of big name third-party brands coming already, a few of which are already here, like Rayman and Sonic. I just wish that the Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry franchises would appear on Wii. (Sure, they're both supposed to get DS games, but seriously. Wii need them!)

[gamefreaks365]

It should be pointed out that third parties (percentage wise) performed poorly on the GameCube because as a percentage of the total games released, third parties never even supported GameCube compared to PS2 and Xbox. The system was a wreck when it came to third party support. There's no where to go but up, so I think you'll see significant improvement, at the least. It really depends on the extent of exclusive content AND the popularity of the franchises that appear on Wii that will determine whether third parties can achieve a majority of sales. It's possible. As we saw last year with Rayman and Red Steel, a million seller can come from someone other than Nintendo