Number of Wii videogames made by outside publishers will be increased, including combat and sports titles that target serious players, in order to keep up the momentum for Wii console.
Nintendo Co, producer and owner of such videogames, said the company hopes to raise the percentage of games made by outside publishers to approximately 70% of the Wii’s library of games, up from about 55% today or about the same ratio as the split for its portable Nintendo DS device.
Nintendo said it has no plan to reduce the price of the Wii from US$250 which is the price since the first launching, because price cuts are merely short-term incentive and in the long run the company will need software to excite people.
The company has sold more than 50 million units throughout the world since the launching of Wii in November 2006, and much of its popularity was triggered by casual games that it has created itself. For instance, the Nintendo-developed Wii Play has been the top selling game, and the company has sold 10.7 million copies in the US, more than three times as many units as the top game by an outside publisher, Guitar Hero III.
Yet, Nintendo is now making a stronger effort in motivating publishers to make games for the Wii to ensure a steady flow of diverse games, and to achieve high levels of sales of hardware the company needs all genres in the market.
As a realization of the effort, Nintendo has taken an extraordinary step in permitting videogame publisher Electronic Arts Inc (EA) to launch two sports games that take advantage of a brand new hardware accessory more than a month before Nintendo’s own marquee game is released.
EA plans to sell Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 in North America and Europe, packaged with the Wii MotionPlus, an attachment for the Wii’s wireless controller that makes it more sensitive to movement. In Europe, EA also plans to sell a second game, Grand Slam Tennis.
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