Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan analyst, told Next-Gen.Biz that third-parties have under-estimated the future success of the Nintendo Wii. He believes Sega and Ubisoft are the only ones that will capitalize from their early support of the platform.
"That's not a slam on the US publishers," said Pachter, "But I, like everybody else, don't know who's going to capitalize on Wii...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. They're ahead of everybody right now."
The Wii's recognition from attendees during the past week's Electronic Entertainment Expo has likely convinced more development support. That said, it may be too late for those just now jumping on board to develop software in time for Wii's Fall '06 launch.
"I can't name any US publisher games that are going to launch on the Wii that are going to make a difference," Pachter said. "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."
Ubisoft currently has three titles in development for Wii including Open Season, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Red Steel. Sega has two titles in development including new iterations in the Sonic the Hedgehog and Monkey Ball series; the company will also provide several retro games for the Nintendo Virtual Console. Nintendo currently stands to benefit the most from its new console with over 18 titles already in development.