Inspired by the early success of the Wii, the companies that create and distribute games are beginning to shift resources and personnel toward building more Wii games, in some cases at the expense of the competing systems: the PlayStation 3 from Sony and Xbox 360 from Microsoft.
The shift is closely watched because consumers tend to favor systems that have many compelling games. More resources diverted to the Wii would mean more games, and that would translate into more consumers buying Wii consoles later.
Jon Goldman, chairman and chief executive of Foundation 9 Entertainment, an independent game development company, said that he was hearing a growing call for Wii games from the publishers and distributors that finance the games that his firm creates. “Publishers are saying: Instead of spending $15 million or $20 million on one PS3 game, come back to me with five or six Wii pitches,” he said.
“We had one meeting two weeks ago with a publisher that was asking for Wii games,” said Mr. Goldman, who declined to identify the video game publisher that he met. “Three or four months ago, they didn’t want to hear Word 1 about the Wii.”
Nintendo said that titles would be coming from several major developers, like Activision and Ubisoft, that are making an enhanced commitment to the platform.
The interest in the Wii follows a period of uncertainty about the console by developers and publishers. They were initially cautious because the Wii was less technologically sophisticated, and they worried that consumers would not take to its unorthodox game play, which uses a motion-controlled wand that players move to direct action on the screen. For example, to serve balls in the tennis game, players circle their arms overhead as they would in real tennis.
History gave developers and publishers reason for caution, too. Nintendo’s last system, the GameCube, was initially a hot seller, but was ultimately outsold — and by a considerable margin — by the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Also, Nintendo has historically made many of the popular games for its own systems, in a way that has discouraged heavy participation by other developers and publishers.
The shift does not represent any shunning of the Xbox or Sony consoles, but rather an elevation of the Wii’s status — one that was clear in many conversations with developers and publishers at E3, the video game industry’s annual trade show in Santa Monica, Calif.
It is early in the current console product cycle, given that these machines are intended to be on the market for more than five years. Industry analysts say they do not expect to declare a victor anytime soon. Nevertheless, the trend is clear: Nintendo is getting growing support from game developers.
“We’re seeing a big shift at E3,” said John Davison, editorial director of 1UP Network, a network of video game Web sites and magazines, “and we’ll see more later this year.” He said he was seeing some game publishers putting less emphasis on the PlayStation 3. “But they’re not going to talk about that,” he added.
Since its first appearance in stores in November, the Wii has been outselling the Xbox 360 and PS3, which came out the same month, and it continues to be in short supply. The NPD Group, a market research firm, reported that as of May, Americans had purchased 2.8 million Wii systems, compared with 1.4 million PS3s. About 5.6 million Xbox 360 consoles have sold, but it hit the market a year earlier.
The Wii has clearly benefited from a price advantage; it costs $250, compared with $300 for the least-expensive Xbox 360 and $479 for the top-of-the-line machine. The PS3 sells for $500, after a price cut by Sony to clear inventory in advance of the Christmas selling season, when its new $600 device will be offered. Microsoft has been hampered of late by widespread product failures, and the company said it would spend $1.15 billion to repair individual machines.
While the growing size of the Wii’s customer base is attractive, developers are favoring Wii for other reasons. They are able to create games in less time than is needed for rival systems, because Wii’s graphics are less complex.
Colin Sebastian, a video game industry analyst with Lazard Capital Markets, said that in rough terms, it cost around $5 million to develop a game for the Wii compared with $10 million to $20 million to make a game for the Xbox 360 or PS3. Mr. Sebastian said that given the cost differences, a developer would need to sell 300,000 copies of a Wii game to break even, compared with 600,000 of a game for the PS3 or Xbox 360.
“Wii development costs certainly are cheaper than the other consoles,” said Scott A. Steinberg, a vice president for marketing at the game developer Sega of America. The company has a number of original Wii projects under development and uses 15 to 25 programmers to develop a Wii title, compared with 50 or more for a PS3 or Xbox 360 game.
Because of its simpler graphics, development times for Wii games are also shorter. A Wii game can be created in as little as 12 months, said Kelly Flock, executive vice president for worldwide publishing at THQ, a video game developer based in Agoura Hills, Calif. Games for the two competing consoles typically take two to three years.
He said that the budget for a Wii game ranges from $1.5 million to $4 million, compared with the $10 million to $12 million the company spends on a PS3 or Xbox 360 game.
“The Wii is a godsend,” Mr. Flock said. “We are aggressively looking for more Wii titles.”
By this holiday season, Nintendo will have added 100 games to its existing 60 titles. Sony has said that it will double the number of titles for the PS3 to 120 by the end of March, while Microsoft said it would have 300 titles for the Xbox 360 by the Christmas selling season. “I don’t think you’ll see any big shifts to one platform because you’re supporting so many,” said Kathy Vrabeck, president of the casual entertainment division of Electronic Arts. That said, she added that there had been a clear shift in mood at the company toward the Wii.
“There is a clear sense of excitement about the Wii at E.A.,” she said.
George Harrison, Nintendo’s senior vice president for marketing, said, “Electronic Arts is doing much more for us than they have in the past.”
Sony counters that, to some extent, Wii developers, publishers and game players will get what they pay for: games with less-complex graphics.
“There is some truth to the fact that you can make games for Wii for less than the PS3,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president for marketing at Sony. “But we still believe that our job is to develop big-budget games.”