14 DAY TRIAL // For a long time, publishers like Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft have found it hard to create hit videogames for the Nintendo Wii home console. Meanwhile, Nintendo itself has had no problem coming up with hits like New Super Mario Bros., Wii Fit Plus, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Sports Resort or Super Mario Galaxy.
Now, data released to the public by Michael Pachter, who is an analyst of the industry working for Wedbush Morgan, shows how big the gap is between Nintendo and other publishers.
The Japanese console manufacturer obtained about half the revenue generated by Wii games in the United States in 2009. The NPD Group is saying that 1.53 billion dollars were earned by the company, which is 47% of the overall 3.23 billion of the market. Interestingly, most Nintendo made titles are also more expensive than those of third parties, mainly because of peripherals like the Balance Board.
Pachter also offered data showing that, for example, titles like Just Dance from Ubisoft, Cabela's Big Game Hunter, Deal or No Deal, The Biggest Loser and Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 managed to perform better on the Nintendo Wii than Guitar Hero World Tour. The reason is that players who are interested in Wii titles are more likely to get videogames linked with big television franchises than titles that have a following among the so-called hardcore.
Third-party titles that managed a good performance in 2009 are: EA Sports Active, Lego Star Wars, Madden 10, Tiger Woods 10, Deca Sports and Game Party. The games specifically marketed towards the more hardcore crowd, like Dead Space: Extraction, and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, were not well received and never made an impact in the charts. Pachter says that about 75% of those who own the Nintendo Wii can be classified as “casual” gamers, with the rest making up the so-called “hardcore.”