Developers also like the Wii because it frees them to focus less on making games look visually beautiful and more on just making them fun to play.
"Coding for the PS3 and the 360 is a daunting challenge," said Kevin Ray, chief technology officer for Majesco Entertainment Co., a game publisher in Edison, N.J., that found the Wii business model so attractive that last year it decided to make games exclusively for that console. "With the Wii, we can afford to get creative and develop something really fun and bizarre."
Nintendo's in-house games studio plans to release its own stable of titles later this year, such as "Metroid Prime 3: Corruption" and "Super Mario Galaxy."
While this coming holiday season is shaping up to be a blockbuster one for Nintendo, some analysts question whether the Wii has enough steam to last longer. The sophisticated hardware for PS3 and Xbox 360 is expected to keep those consoles relevant for another decade.
"The Wii in a couple of years is going to look like old technology with low resolution, slow performance," Baker said. "People may not be accepting of that."
But 31% of Wii owners surveyed in March by Frank N. Magid Associates, a media consulting firm, said they expected to play the Wii more often a year from now, compared to 21% of Xbox 360 owners.
"We don't see it fading," said Mike Vorhaus, a managing director with the Sherman Oaks firm. He credits the success to families who play together, as well as singles who get together for Wii parties.
That's what Nintendo is banking on. While the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are played primarily by young men, the Wii is played on average by more people in each household. That means Nintendo has a good shot at selling more games per console than its rivals, said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing.
"Before, it was the teenage boy playing by himself," Harrison said. "Now, the whole family is playing."
alex.pham@latimes.com
