Momentum still building behind Wii game development

A report in the New York Times has underlined something developers have known for sometime (and which Develop reported on over six months ago) – that publishers are seeking out more and more Wii games from studios.

The NYT says that behind closed doors at publishers and developers resources continue to shift towards Wii game production – and that this is happening at the expense of the PS3 and Xbox 360.

“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,” the piece quotes Jon Goldman, chairman and CEO of US superdeveloper Foundation 9 Entertainment as saying.

He adds: “We had one meeting two weeks ago with a publisher that was asking for Wii games. Three or four months ago, they didn’t want to hear Word 1 about the Wii.”

Publishers Activision, Ubisoft, Take 2 and EA have all restated their desire to start making more games for the Wii given the console’s strong sales and diverse, growing customer base, cheaper production costs and lower manpower demands.

THQ’s Kelly Flock points out that Wii coding only requires teams at the 15-man mark as opposed to PS3/360’s larger teams – adding that the lower budgets of $1.5-$4m are more appealing than the $10m-$12m paid for a single PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 title.

“The Wii is a godsend,” Flock said. “We are aggressively looking for more Wii titles.”