Appeal to Nintendo Constituency Does Not Mean Third-Party Success

For some, the success of core titles on the Wii is as simple as pointing to the popular The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess or Super Mario Galaxy.  Indeed, these Nintendo made titles have sold millions of copies and given the Nintendo fan base a reason to cheer, but the Kyoto-company's software stranglehold on its own systems isn't really a good thing for third-parties. 

Sales-wise, Nintendo games have really dominated the Wii, with nine of the top ten selling titles for the system from the Big N, with the Sega published Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games coming in at number 10.  Nintendo has produced 18 titles that have sold over a million copies and the company takes up over 40 percent of the software share on Wii.  

This trend is nothing new on Nintendo consoles, however.  Historically, Nintendo has performed better than any other publisher on their consoles. In fact, from what we've heard from publishers, Nintendo's software share on its previous platforms has been around 60 percent, leaving third parties to fight over the remaining 40 percent scraps.  This is perhaps to be expected, but it presents a dilemma for third parties; while the Nintendo faithful would argue that software sales favor Nintendo because of their superior quality, it seems in large part likely that certain consumers are simply interested in buying Nintendo systems for Nintendo software like Mario, Legend of Zelda and Metroid and might not even give other games a second glance.  People who are fans of Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods may not necessarily be fans of cycling or golf, and similarly consumers interested in "core" titles from Nintendo may not be that interested in core games from other publishers. 

We're sure that Metroid: Other M, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and the next Legend of Zelda games will be great titles, but that doesn't mean the core game interest on the Wii will transfer to third-parties.  Ultimately, the Wii will probably end up being Nintendo's most successful home console ever, but by the end most publishers will likely have moved their resources to systems where gamers actually want to buy their products.