Is it really all that surprising? The console titles mostly range from the last 5 calendar quarters (to include both Christmas launches) save for Mario Kart which is a category killer for kart racer. And I would guess that hand held titles have a much longer shelf life so I do not expect it is that much of an anomaly. This article should compare trends from NPD data from last year which I bet are not all that different.

I also expect Wii owners are more starved for great new software so in lieu they tend to buy older gems they might not already own.

"I also expect Wii owners are more starved for great new software so in lieu they tend to buy older gems they might not already own."
Ah, bitter ;-) You are thinking that current owners are buying old software. Let's apply a twist: new owners (of which there were 600k during January) are buying games which are new for them, but are old for us. Remember, most are not savvy players, they are families and people not used at having a console, and they won't care if a game was released yesterday or three years ago.

@ Roberto.

Good point. No bitterness intended. I do not own a Wii but I enjoy playing it. I was observing that the Wii market has been different from console markets before it and other than Nintendo and a few really high profile AAA titles (GH/RB/COD) no other publisher has been able to enjoy much of that success despite a slew of titles (admittedly far too many ported franchises from 360/PS3). Clearly Wii owners are still buying Nintendo products.

@ mike
Clearly only Nintendo addresses their constituents with quality product. The rest of the development community is suffering from an appalling case of HD prejudice. So much so, that they are like the a sports franchise that refuses to integrate racially, as was the case decades ago in this country (US). These companies believe that if it is not an HD game, it is not worth their time. Despite the fact that much of their very best work was NOT in HD and was VERY successful. Such a franchise would not be competitive (or even in existence) today. Unfortunately, many of our developers are headed the same direction... . You must embrace all, and show true appreciation for all the platforms to survive in this economic environment. Now is not the time for snobbery or prejudice.

for me it was a good suprise. Nitendo is the best.

Roberto has a good point - and it's also a potentially worrying one. If Nintendo sales are being driven by specific, named titles (and with a distinct emphasis on those with a hardware component), then what happens when market saturation is reached?

Or, to put it another way: new people are buying what old people have already bought; old people aren't buying anything new...

Elsewhere, it's interesting to see that Call of Duty: World At War occupies 3 of the 20 slots (Wii/PS3/X360), and it's somewhat surprising to see the "Jillian fitness" item at #14 - on one hand this makes use of the Balance Board, on the other hand the reviews on Amazon make it clear that this release is a poster child for the shovelware generation - with 250 reviews, it's rated at 2 stars, and approx. 60% of said reviews have left one-star feedback!

Nintendo may not care too much (yet), but the overall picture doesn't look great from where I'm sitting: . It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when Nintendo release sequels to Wii Play/Wii Sports/Wii Fit: will people rush out again, or will they be happy with what they've already got?

@gstarr: take a look at vgchartz sometime - it may not be accurate, but it does show trends, and the key one for the Wii is that most games simply don't sell enough: brand-names (e.g. Harry Potter, Spyro, SSX) appear to have shifted less than 400k copies apiece, and even licenced media (Cars, Ratatoullie, Harry Potter) achieve better sales on the DS and PS2(!) than on the Wii.

It's not so much a case of developers ignoring the Wii, but more a case of the Wii market ignoring traditional titles...

The traditional market actually appears very segmented to me. Why upgrade to play games on the Wii when the game is on the PS2 I already own. Add that to the fact that there are not many great traditional games on the Wii outside of what Nintendo offers.

The third party games that do deserve to sell well are not even known to much of the user base. If core gamers that visit gaming sites daily don’t know about deadly creatures, de blob or even cod:waw being on the Wii what chance do new gamers have at knowing about the title.

The Wii market does not ignore good games that are known by the market. Third parties just don’t do a good job getting the word out and well know brands are on systems the user already own already.