Vying for Wii Pie

In the fourth quarter, said Jenson, EA plans to have four titles for the Wii, three for the PS3 and five for the 360.

Also, EA in December acquired Headgate Studios of Salt Lake City, Utah, which has been exclusively developing titles for the Wii platform.

"We are redirecting some other resources toward Wii and the DS," said Electronic Arts CEO Larry Probst. "By the end of this fiscal year, we will have six titles in the market -- which, other than Ubisoft -- will make us the most prolific publisher on the Wii platform through March."

Probst also said that EA is likely to ship "a number in the low to mid-teens" in fiscal 2008, on both the Wii and DS.

The lower cost of game development for the Wii has also given smaller publishers an opportunity to make games for the platform, says Pidgeon.

Creating a game for Sony's PlayStation 2, for instance, could cost anywhere from $10 million to $15 million, and take 18 months to two years.

But with the Wii, the investments are lower -- there are fewer complexities -- enabling smaller companies, such as independent Japanese publisher Capcom, to create games for the platform.

"You have to look at the Wii as a new platform, so you can't just port stuff from the PS3 to the Xbox 360 to the Wii, though that's the EA way," says Pidgeon.

"Companies that do differentiate between the platforms will have the edge because they can write for the platform," he adds.