Third-Party Development on Wii Isn't Justified, Says id Boss

The Nintendo Wii is a record-breaking console, due to the fact that it has been enjoying a massive popularity ever since it was released. The big number of titles available for the platform have also contributed to the large number of users that the small, white Japanese console enjoys.

But while it has a lot of titles made for it, only a few are actually good, as showcased by some studies, and a lot of these popular games have been made by Nintendo itself, based on its very popular franchises including Mario and The Legend of Zelda.

That is why other companies shouldn't really attempt to make big titles for the Wii, Todd Hollenshead, the CEO of id, which is the company behind the extremely successful Wolfenstein, Quake, or Doom series of first-person shooters, says. But while he feels that way, he still keeps an open mind and wants to hear a good argument for making hardcore titles for the Wii.

“If you look at the data, the Wii is Nintendo—and then everybody else. And then among everybody else, it's licensed properties – and then stuff that people lose money on. So, for a really original, game-centric IP, if you're a third-party developer, I would say, ‘Show me what makes such a compelling case for the Wii.’ Sometimes people lose sight of the fact that almost every company doesn't try to be all things to all people. Nintendo isn't trying to be all things to all people either.”

He also goes on to say why the upcoming Wolfenstein title won't be making an appearance on the Nintendo Wii, instead coming to more high-end platforms like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or PC, and branching it to almost any hardcore title. “Even if we make an awesome game, there's still a question as to whether we're going to justify our investment. And also, I mean, if you look at the market, the type of games we traditionally make, those games are selling record numbers on non-Wii platforms.”

While some people might argue with Hollenshead, the fact of the matter still remains that hardcore, third-party titles don't sell that much on Nintendo platforms, with the most recent example being Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS, which didn't manage to set any sale records.