Wii was touted as the system where the idea could prevail over a big budget, but in an interesting turn of events, the early success of Nintendo's new generation console has cost independent developers the chance to make games for the system.

Water Cooler Games' Ian Bogost reports that the Wii Independent Developer Program is "on hold" until the end of March, because "the Wii publishers are taking all of the available inventory, and more," according to Nintendo of America.

In response, Bogost said, "I still have a lot of interest in developing for Wii at the studio, but the lack of dev kits combined with the lack of retail units makes me worry. Is Nintendo's story about mass-appeal just marketing rhetoric?

"At the rate we're going, independent games of any kind won't be a reality until 2008 at least, and we still don't know how likely Nintendo is to license unusual games for the system. Maybe by that time the retail stock situation will have resolved itself, at least. There's no point making games for a machine nobody can buy."