In the United States, the market for third-party Wii software is much more robust. Again, a slide from President Iwata:



According to NPD's figures through the end of 2007, third parties accounted for 60% of Wii software sales during the system's launch period and during the latter half of 2007. Remember that the last 6 months of 2007 included two important Nintendo titles: Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3. The former of these was even the #5 best-selling game of the last year. Moreover, since Nintendo is citing NPD's software data in the above graph, it is possible that Wii Play is included in the Nintendo software. Sales of the Wii Play hardware/software bundle – which has sold exceptionally well in the U.S. – would slant sales in favor Nintendo. Despite the success of Nintendo's own Wii software, third parties still accounted for 3/5 of that system's software sales from July to December 2007.

In Europe, third party Wii developers and publishers are finding the same kind of opportunities being found in the American market.



Perhaps President Iwata sees hope for third parties in Japan because of the trend in Europe in 2007. There the market shifted from a 45/55 split between third parties and Nintendo during the first half of the year to a 59/41 split in favor of the third parties during the second half of the year.

Even with President Iwata's optimism, it is difficult to imagine what it will take for Japanese third-party developers to overcome the sheer strength of Nintendo's own powerhouse software franchises. In a year's time, if Nintendo releases similar information, we may be in a position to determine how the Japanese Wii software market has changed and whether third-party developers have made headway against the Nintendo juggernaut.