EA Comment on Wii U Situation - Looking at How Things Unfold

By Jorge Ba-oh 09.06.2013 13

EA Comment on Wii U Situation - Looking at How Things Unfold on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

EA have commented again on the current Wii U situation, highlighting the publisher's relationship with Nintendo.

In an interview published this week, Frank Gibeau, EA's president of labels, confirmed that the company haven't written off the Nintendo Wii U completely. It's been a shaky start for EA on the Wii U and despite releasing four titles in the first few months of the console's life, it's gone noticeably downhill since.

Despite claims that the publisher will not be producing Wii U titles, it appears that EA will be keeping a watchful eye on how the system performs "looking at how things unfold".

"We have a good partnership with Nintendo," Gibeau re-iterated, confirming the four titles released for the system so far. Despite this "we have no publicly announced Wii U games that we're going to release this fall", he said.

If the Wii U picks up, there will likely be EA support as the company still intend to support the PS3 and Xbox 360 going forward.

Gibeau also confirmed that EA considers the Wii U as next-generation, alongside the Xbox One and PS4.

What are your thoughts on the Wii U situation and EA?

Comment on this article

You can comment as a guest or join the Cubed3 community below: Sign Up for Free Account Login

Preview PostPreview Post Your Name:
Validate your comment
  Enter the letters in the image to validate your comment.
Submit Post

Comments

AgedGamerAndy is offline. AgedGamerAndy 09.06.2013#1

In Other Words, EA have seen the backlash from the Xbone DRM system, they also know Sony have a simular system in place, but have yet to announce it and EA realise only the Hardcore System fanboys will actually bother with Ps4 and Xbone and the general gamer will go else where PC, Steambox, WiiU, etc.
EA now have to try to rebuild the bridges they have destroyed with Nintendo and WiiU owners due to the constant beating that they have laid on WiiU.
Thing is, I don't think anyone cares if EA decide to publish on WiiU or Not anymore and it's doubtfull any EA games will sell well on WiiU, due to the feeling of disrespect that WiiU owners feel EA has shown them and the system.

 
jb is online! jb 09.06.2013#2

I personally don't bother about EA titles in general, but titles like NFS, Mass Effect really are good ones to have on the system. The annual FIFA I've never gotten the point in - they always end up heavily discounted in second hand shops just months after release, but are useful to have on the Wii U shelves because of image rather than anything else.

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer
 
Marcus J. Hopkins is offline. Marcus J. Hopkins 09.06.2013#3

Aww...you mean Wii U owners won't have the opportunity to purchase dozens of annually updated titles with slightly better graphics and slightly different gameplay repackaged as new titles at full retail price?  How will we ever survive without them?

 
Ikana is offline. Ikana 09.06.2013#4

Yeeeah, I doubt anyone is devastated by this news. Can't even remember the last EA title I purchased.

 
Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 09.06.2013#5

jb said:
I personally don't bother about EA titles in general, but titles like NFS, Mass Effect really are good ones to have on the system. The annual FIFA I've never gotten the point in - they always end up heavily discounted in second hand shops just months after release, but are useful to have on the Wii U shelves because of image rather than anything else.

The sad thing is that i know people who have PS3's/360's JUST for FIFA. It's one of the best selling games of the year every year and constantly charts and despite saying that its heavily discounted it does tend to stay over £30 for the majority of the season. There are times where places might drop it to £20 but still I'd say that its a massive hit for EA and for football fans alike. 

It's never really sold that well on Nintendo platforms but if anything i do think Nintendo gamers are missing out on it...likewise if COD: Ghosts misses the console, these are massive annual franchises that quite frankly make up the majority of console games sales figures!

 
J4K is offline. J4K 09.06.2013#6

Don't understand the "screw you EA I don't even care!" reaction I see from a lot of Nintendo fans. Fact is the Wii U will lose out by not having EA's support. Missing out on Mass Effect as the Wii did before is a big blow. EA sports titles in general are also bad things to lose, even if many couldn't care less.

Those expecting EA to eventually crawl back to Nintendo because of the Xbox One debacle are being unrealistically optimistic. MS may have screwed up to this point, but presently the Wii U is a disappointment install-base wise. It would be overly reactionary for EA to suddenly switch tracks back to Wii U and bank on a system that doesn't really deserve trust just because of some bad press for the One.

Honestly, you all dismiss this as not being important, but it's stuff like this that made me transition to the 360 as my main console this generation, and will make me likely choose the PS4 next generation. Nintendo can't seem to get 3rd parties onboard in a good way, and even the ones that are onboard aren't interested in putting their best properties on the system.

You might despise EA, but this sort of "wait and see" attitude is likely indicative of the entire industry's view of the Wii U, even if they aren't as pointed about saying it. Those seeing this as just an EA problem are missing the bigger picture.

 
TAG is offline. TAG 09.06.2013#7

JB and Jacob are absolutely right. EA is one of the biggest game developers/publishers in the industry. Losing their support looks really bad for the WiiU. I'm not a big fan of their sports games and the like, but those are huge money makers. If the average Joe goes down to Wal-Mart looking to buy a shiny new game console and learns that he can't buy NFL 2014 and MLB 2015 on the WiiU, he's not even going to consider it. For gamers like that (and there are many), it's very obvious the WiiU isn't for them, and they'll just to skip it. That's bad for all WiiU gamers. I would hate to see the WiiU pull a Dreamcast.

TAG: That American Guy

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18
 
Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 09.06.2013#8

Jacob4000 said:
Don't understand the "screw you EA I don't even care!" reaction I see from a lot of Nintendo fans. Fact is the Wii U will lose out by not having EA's support. Missing out on Mass Effect as the Wii did before is a big blow. EA sports titles in general are also bad things to lose, even if many couldn't care less.

Those expecting EA to eventually crawl back to Nintendo because of the Xbox One debacle are being unrealistically optimistic. MS may have screwed up to this point, but presently the Wii U is a disappointment install-base wise. It would be overly reactionary for EA to suddenly switch tracks back to Wii U and bank on a system that doesn't really deserve trust just because of some bad press for the One.

Honestly, you all dismiss this as not being important, but it's stuff like this that made me transition to the 360 as my main console this generation, and will make me likely choose the PS4 next generation. Nintendo can't seem to get 3rd parties onboard in a good way, and even the ones that are onboard aren't interested in putting their best properties on the system.

You might despise EA, but this sort of "wait and see" attitude is likely indicative of the entire industry's view of the Wii U, even if they aren't as pointed about saying it. Those seeing this as just an EA problem are missing the bigger picture.

Not all of us are thinking like that...


 
welshwuff is offline. welshwuff 09.06.2013#9

last EA game i bought was ty the tazmanian tiger, second hand, and it's trash. I'd rather real game developers release games on the wii u not sports crazed broish meatheads in suits only steping outside their fifa safezone with graphs of whats already popular and how we can cash in on it.

 
J4K is offline. J4K 09.06.2013#10

Flynnie said:
Not all of us are thinking like that...

Certainly not - and I'm not calling out everyone. I've just seen too many people across the internet saying their personal disdain for EA means it doesn't matter that they're not supporting the Wii U. There are wider implications here.

 
Vorash Kadan 09.06.2013#11

The only thing that I feel we'll miss out on are worth while is the Dead Space series & a possible new horror IP by Viseral on the 3DS.

I STILL say they could make a sublime horror game for 3DS & the true 3D would make it a better experience than on ANY other platform!!

It is not wise to speak on subjects you do not know all facts about, nor is it smart to judge a game based on looks alone. PSN: Nintendo_Gamer 3DS: 4296-3029-7422
 
Laurelin (guest) 10.06.2013#12

I don't like EA any more then any of you, you may all despise it it seems. 
But they made some great or good games back some years ago.
I bought my first real AE game back then by the name of Mirror's Edge. It was something new and innovative for EA and the got slapped for trying this and for some other games being released that same year. That was a shame and they went back to the same old shit.
I would like to see something like Mirror's Edge again on Wii-U.

They have some IP printing money, like Bioware's IPs, like EA-Sports games (which I despise, by the way).
It would be bad not to have them on WiiU. But they wouldn't be on WiiU anyway, even if they wouldn't have turned their back on WiiU so prominently, because they *have* turned their back on WiiU, like many other publishers as well.

No game sales, no publishers, no publishers, no game sales, no wide install base, no game sales...
It's a circle of non-life.


BUT on the other hand: No publisher wants to build himself a name on Nintendo-platforms with exceptional games. Why are Nintendo games selling like pizza on WiiU? Because they are great! They seldom deliver utter shit with anchovis. Aside from Nintendo, I only know one other publisher, delivering more or less great games for Nintendo platforms: Ubisoft. A lot of shit, but great games as well. Shame they don't bring Beyond Good and Evil to WiiU - maybe they will.

But EA just pulles the plug on WiiU, that's not good. I don't need them, but they would be good for Nintendo.

JayUK is offline. JayUK 11.06.2013#13

EA is a massive loss to the casual gamer, to the informed gamer its not a big loss at all.
-Yearly sports games that hardly change isn't something I'd waste my money on.
-Deadspace has become Resident Evil in the worst possible way,
-Mass Effect 1 was great published by Microsoft, EA got hold of it: made integral parts of the story DLC (seriously Arrival is DLC?), and removed a lot of the RPG elements to appeal to CoD fans.

Nintendo needs the casual fans to survive, like all 3 major companies. To anyone reading this article though, no tears will be shed about EA whinging in the corner over their origin system. Make better game's and stop trying to make everything play the same, and gamers will respect you more EA.

 

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
jb

There are 1 members online at the moment.