3rd party developers playing catch-up

[Skippy]

Here's a good article about how third party developers were caught off guard by the Wii's success and are desperately trying to play catch up. The article is primarily about EA, but mentions some others as well.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amWmy6_JG16U&refer=home

Some intersting quotes:

"Those companies are backtracking,'' said Anthony Gikas, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in Minneapolis. "They're going to need to get their best-branded product on that platform. That will take a good nine to 12 months.''

Nintendo's lead will widen, pressuring companies even more. Researcher IDC predicts Nintendo will ship 16.1 million players this year, outpacing Microsoft's 9.87 million Xbox 360s and Sony's 9.1 million PlayStation 3s.

With six months to go before Wii's release and games requiring a year or more to develop, publishers knew they were in trouble.

"It's not really a bet anymore,'' he said. "It's a viable system that's going to make us money.''

 

[Divum]

Yay~ more wii games = more fun~ = yay~
I hope they take their times and make quality games that are exclusive to the Wii.

 

[MasterJedi2U]

Its really about damn time (pardon my French). EA and Activision are starting to realize whats going on. And other developers need to wise up soon as well. SQUARE ENIX comes to mind. Can you imagine the amount of money they could make if they released the REAL Final Fantasy game for the Wii? The Wii has huge potential as long as these companies make games that have great graphics, controls, and storylinese. And yes I agree that NOT every game has to use the Wii Remotes motion sensor. However I think a lot of them could. Or at the very least they should be compatible with the Wii Remote.

"Ubisoft

Ubisoft Entertainment SA, maker of ``Rayman'' and ``Tom Clancy'' games, was the quickest to recognize Wii's appeal and is reaping the rewards.

Wii games helped increase sales for the December quarter by 24 percent to $405 million. In January, the company raised its 2007 forecast for revenue growth to 16 percent from 10 percent to 12 percent previously.

Ubisoft, based in the Paris suburb of Montreuil-Sous-Bois, had seven Wii games out by December and plans six more by June, said Tony Key, vice president of marketing.
``It's not really a bet anymore,'' he said. ``It's a viable system that's going to make us money.''"

Love that part...Have you heard about Sadness though? I heard that it might not be coming out...pretty shocking to say the least. Although I wasn't really hyped about it I know a lot of other people were. Apparrently the publisher dropped out of the project or something.