UPDATE: "Nintendo Was Dead to Us" After Wii U Launch, Says EA Source

[Michael Epstein]

UPDATE: "Nintendo Was Dead to Us" After Wii U Launch, Says EA Source

It sounds like the relationship between EA and Nintendo may be completely broken.

It's no secret that third-party publishers have completely lost interest in making games for the Wii U. With near-stagnant growth in the year since its release and Nintendo's newly lowered sales projections, it's a safe bet the Wii U won't be winning developers back anytime soon, but there are always some fans out there who believe in Nintendo, who think it the Wii U will bounce back the way the 3DS did after its rocky start.

According to a recent CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/446277/blog/nintendo-must-reinvent-itself/] report, it's time to give that dream up. AAA developers aren't going to come back to the Wii U. According to one anonymous EA staffer, the publisher doesn't believe it's possible for their games to be successful on the platform.

"Nintendo was dead to us very quickly," said the source. "It became a kids IP platform and we don't really make games for kids. That was pretty true across the other labels too. Even the Mass Effect title on Wii U, which was a solid effort, could never do big business, and EA like Activision is only focused on games that can be big franchises".

Another anonymous source from the publisher "working on perhaps the biggest franchise in games today," said Nintendo "just doesn't care about US developers" based on his experience working with the console-maker. The source doesn't say the publisher has severed ties with Nintendo, but it doesn't sound as if they're particularly interested pitching any more Wii U ideas.

UPDATE: Electronic Arts Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore has very pointedly denied the "dead to us" claim on Twitter. "Don't trust 'anonymous sources'. Nintendo's a great partner," he wrote. "They never have been, and never will be, 'dead' to EA."

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/petermooreEA/status/426443269900226560]

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/446277/blog/nintendo-must-reinvent-itself/]

Permalink

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I'd suggest people read the article sourced before freaking out. It's not just about EA's opinion and has good points that have been argued on these threads for months.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I still have some hope that japanese developers could develop some cool stuff for it, all i'm asking for is a bunch of really cool rpgs and action titles for a niche audience. If only they could reach some sort of reliable niche and feed of that for a while, i would defineately buy the machine for that. But at the moment it seems to get some really cool stuff, and there's a lot of promising titles out on the market allready, the future just seems a bit uncertain at the moment. I'm not buying until they reveal what their plans are for 2015 and onwards.

I can't help but wonder why they aren't developing something like Fire Emblem Awakening, Professor Layton, Pokemon, Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright. There's so many succesful Nintendo related series on the DS that could help them reach a bigger audience, but they don't seem to do much about it. But i couldn't care less about EA, Ubisoft and Activision, they don't really make games that i want to play anyway, for me it's all about the exclusives.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

That's fair, EA. You're dead to most gamers, anyway. Of course, if there is a God, you'll be dead PERIOD after the FTC revokes your business license for your money-grubbing shenanigans.

CAPTCHA: politically correct

If they lost their license, it would be considered that, yes.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Putting aside whether this guy is/was an actual EA dev (not exactly finding anons trustworthy), this is still his opinion and this is what I think of it: disgusting. Did he SERIOUSLY just use "kids" as a pejorative? Because if that's what he SERIOUSLY thinks of gaming then he's an IDIOT. What he is spouting is just ignorant and really insecure.

Games. Are. Toys. They should ALWAYS be aimed at the young as an industry that doesn't try to get new consumers in it is a broken industry. And furthermore, let's says that EA don't make games for kids (I mean, c'mon, look at Peggle and Plants vs Zombies), because any big publisher that doesn't have at least ONE franchise aimed at children is a stupid publisher. Heck, Activision, for as much as I despise them, have at least ONE big kids franchise in Skylanders. I can understand development teams not aiming at kids, but why would an entire PUBLISHER shun the children's market? That's just plain bad business. That's like an entire movie studio shunning family friendly films. If you are going to let ONE company try to represent the entirety of family gaming, then there is something REALLY wrong with game makers nowadays. It reminds me of how comics in the 90s pandered to older fans disproportionately due to their inherent insecurity issues with, at the end of the day, still being COMICS, a medium that was aimed predominantly at children. And because of those issues comics failed to get in newer fans to make up for older ones leaving, thus leading to the industry imploding to the point where even 20 years later it's STILL a mere shell of its former self. Seems to me like gaming needs to grow up. C.S. Lewis would be spinning in his grave at crap like this.

 

[Khymerion]

Actually, the article that this links to is a ton more depressing than this little blurb makes it sound.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Not wanting to be pessimistic, but it isn't even a platform for kids. Of course it has a lot of "for all ages", but when I play with my nephews they prefer the Kinect.

 

[fluxy100]

It's sad to know that EA doesn't think the Wii U can make them money. I mean they put out such great gems on the Wii, such as; Sport game, Sport game, Sims game, and Sport game. Seriously I just looked at the list of Wii games EA made on their website, according to them they made 74 games for the Wii, 30 of those are Sports & Racing games and the rest are pretty much Board games turned into video games.

Of the 4 games they released onto the Wii U, 3 of them were Sports & Racing games. Nobody wants a Sports or Racing game on the Wii U, there are much better platforms made for those games. I think the problem here is that EA wanted to port their games that do well on other systems onto the Wii U, just as an afterthought to make them a little money. But since those games don't sell on the Wii U they decided to just cut ties with the company instead of making games that the Wii U market would buy.

 

[Kmadden2004]

Even the Mass Effect title on Wii U, which was a solid effort, could never do big business,

You mean the year-old, third game in a trilogy which hinged on its continuing story and didn't see any of its previous instalments on any previous Nintendo consoles didn't sell particularly well on the new nintendo console?

Say it ain't so.

 

[IshimaruHayato]

The Dreamcast also never had any EA games on it. I wonder if thats coincidence

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I wish that publishers would stop using "Kids" as an insult, as if an all ages game is somehow lesser than Ultra-Hardcore-HD-Guns-And-Tits.

 

[Yopaz]

I'd suggest people read the article sourced before freaking out. It's not just about EA's opinion and has good points that have been argued on these threads for months.

No, there aren't really any good points in that article.

Mass Effect 3 is advertised as the thrilling conclusion of a trilogy. Maybe not how to appeal to a Nintendo audience when they would need the first two games to get excited about the end. It was released on the Wii U half a year after it was out on all other systems which means it was old enough to make sure everyone with any interest in it would already have played it. On top of that they charged full price for a 6 month old game. That game was also one of the main factors in promoting EA to its evil status due to the ending. An ending so bad people sued and donated money thinking they were going to force EA to change it.

So Mass Effect 3 not being successful on the Wii U? Yeah, that's something we could have guessed would happen.

"Wii U is a kiddy console and we don't like kids" is an argument that has been tossed around this forum a lot, but it's not a good point just because a good deal have said it before.

A good reason to abandon Wii U is that it's simply not meeting expectations of either Nintendo or third party developers. Good games have failed to make a profit, even Nintendo's own powerhouse titles are failing to meet expectations.

There are good reasons not to develop for Wii U, but those reasons aren't present in this article.

 

[nodlimax]

I don't like EA, but don't act so surprised. The WiiU was dead on arrival. Outdated Tech trying to compete with next (now current) gen and PC.

They failed to get good exclusives to pretty much force people into buying it and now many of the big companies don't want to touch it and the indies can't afford to develop for this thing, because there is no user base.....

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

"It became a kids IP platform and we don't really make games for kids."

No, you just make games for 13 year olds.

I am still annoyed by the catch-22 that the WiiU is in, but speaking as a PCGamer, not hugely annoyed, as it barely has anything to do with me.

However, it is sad to know that the WiiU is at its current state, that, coupled with the 3DS and that Fusion-thing, shows that Nintendo need to focus and get their act together.

It feels like they are trying to alleviate the problems of past products by creating new ones, which is not a wise decision.

It also doesn't help that EA are being douches about this.

 

[Charli]

Did he SERIOUSLY just use "kids" as a pejorative?

This is all it took from me to switch off.

What a twat.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That was a pretty interesting read.

Looks like Nintendo has their work cut out for them if they want to turn their console luck around. It's likely already too late for the Wii-U though. The fact that they sold more Wii-U's in the first 7 weeks than in the following year is pretty dismal.

 

[MCerberus]

How long until people from the mobile division start transferring over onto the WiiU team at Nintendo? Those guys have actually been delivering. Between exclusives, the launch of a no-3d version of the 3ds that fits a rather interesting niche, and, let's face it, Pokemon, that part of the company has had a good year.