JULY 1, 2007 • According to Daily Variety, major Japanese third-party publishers are increasing their Wii development budgets in comparison to the PlayStation 3. Namco Bandai will up its Nintendo titles by 109% to 115; Sega by 96% to 49; and Capcom by 5% to 20. Meanwhile, these three majors intend to cut shipments of titles for Sony machines by 30%-40%. Capcom alone will boost its Nintendo shipments 81% to 4.7 million units. Square Enix, another major Japanese game publisher, has no plans to develop titles for the PS3 until sales improve enough to make the steep development costs financially worthwhile.

Impact: Not only is the Wii leading in sales, but indications are development costs for Wii games are substantially lower than for the PS3 or Xbox 360.  That means if the Wii can continue its momentum that may be good news for the bottom line of third-party publishers.  Of course, having more third-party titles is a great way to continue to generate consumer interest in the Wii.  On a potential down note there should be some concern that publishers may over flood the Wii software market.