3rd party developers to lose out on Wii revenue

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that with third party developers holding back on the Wii simply because they didn’t know how warmly received the system would be at E3 stand to lose out on early Wii cash flow.

“I can’t name any US publisher games that are going to launch on the Wii that are going to make a difference. Certainly there will be Spongebob, but big deal. Seriously, that’s great, but if you buy the Wii as your second console, as I really think most people are going to do, you’re probably not going to give a damn about Spongebob.”

Mr. Pachter did say that there are a few publishers who have jumped on the Wii bandwagon with confidence, and they are set to make some money from their deal.

“If the Wii sells — I’m just being ridiculous here — 10 million units in the first year, who benefits? Well, clearly Nintendo, and clearly Ubisoft will capture that higher-end mature audience (Red Steel), and clearly Sega (Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz) will be there and do well, but can I say [THQ] would sell 5 million copies of Spongebob? No way.”

Mr. Pachter then leaves a few parting words praising Nintendo’s Wii, and Ubisoft as well.

“I didn’t think publishers [knew how cool the Wii was] until they got their hands on it. I don’t know how Ubisoft figured it out. Let’s give them a lot of credit. Their ahead of everybody right now.”

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