Ah, the "Wii Hate HD" threads...always a favorite around here.
This isn't an HD hate thread. It's really a "why do third parties give a damn about a system they never make their best games for?" thread. "HD" gets mentioned like it's a "nuff said" issue, but that doesn't explain the industry's history when it comes to just that issue.
The N64 was "HD" before its time with something called "High Rez" which meant a higher resolution (!) of 640x480. Nobody really cared then. The GC and Xbox dangled "Progressive scan" over the PS2 to zero effect. Suddenly HD is like the buzzword of the generation, being thrown around more than blast processing. Suddenly graphical output means a whole lot to third parties who didn't care at all last generation, and this includes the developers of series like Final Fantasy and Metal Gear, who previously resided on the least capable systems.
And just mentioning the fact that HD, itself, hasn't grown the userbase of anything isn't to "hate" it, it's just to state a fact. It really hasn't. And nobody really hates "HD" as a concept. They just don't think it's worth the tradeoff of higher prices, longer dev times, and desperation attempts by the developers for more revenue, like Abusive DLC, Full priced demo disks, and product-less DRM schemes known as digital distribution.
As an example, I love chocolate cakes. They are delicious, but they are very expensive and bad for me. I feel the same way about HD. It is an inevitable occurrence that future consoles will be HD, so much that everybody won't care who did it first, but driving costs up for devs who then research the worst methods of capitalism, driving game prices up $10 minimum, driving console prices past $400, and other such tactics in the process of economizing HD have really brought destruction to our fair hobby. It's more complex than simply "Love/Hate"
Wii is like cable TV, and PS3/360 is like HBO. Both cable and HBO have some great content, but cable is the one that everybody's gonna have because it's cheap and has something for everyone.
I'd agree with this if third parties went about making games for the Wii like TV production companies go about making shows for cable. Because currently regular cable has better shows than HBO/Showtime, because HBO/Showtime usually just rips off an old cable show and inserts more swear words into the script.
That's not the case with Wii. Nintendo still makes alright games, but third parties have somehow lost their minds and decided the best way to make a good impression on the largest userbase is to make some of the worst games they have ever made.
And finally, I don't think the Wii userbase, or regular customers/gamers in general are as nondiscriminatory as you think. That's why all those surefire "Wii demographic" "party games" failed miserably. Of course in response to this, most will say something like "Hmmf, lousy casual Wii owners and their hardcore Nintendo fanboyism." (Gee, wonder why?) Then they'll cut support, even as the Wii userbase grows to 50 million faster than the PS2. It's never that they make horrible games. It's the economy! It's the Nintendo fans! It's the magical casual market that's there for Wii Sports Resort but not there for Mega Pasture Party: Cowsill Clambake!
I just wish they'd make better games and stop trying to be Kanye West to Taylor Swift. They bet on the wrong horse, but that never stopped them from picking the right one soon after. I wish they'd stop treating Wii owners like schmucks, because it is really damaging to their reputations.