EA CEO Frustrated With Poor Performance on the Wii

[VonVirgo]

Is that so? Let's look at the Wii games EA has published, shall we: Hasbro Family Game Night 2, NERF N-Strike Elite, Sim Animal Africa, Charm Girls Pajama Party, Littlest Pet Shop Friends, MySims, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra...Yeah, its Nintendo's fault these sure-fire hits aren't selling.

 

[John Funk]

-snip-

EA laid off 1,500 employees and is closing entire studios and canceling dozens of titles. Riccitiello calls this "playing offense." Bullshit. It's called "sucking wind." I fully expect one of the next press releases containing Riccitiello's name to also contain the words "stepping" and "down." And frankly, I'm not sure how to feel about that. I was cheering the man's name a year ago when he was espousing the "visionary" philosophy of encouraging IP creation and third-party development, while Activision was cutting titles that lacked "franchise potential." A year later, here we are. Sucks, but there it is.

I think Riccitiello realized he only needs a handful of meatheads capable of crunching code to churn out a Madden game every year.

I think that's an extremely short-sighted and inconsiderate statement.

 

[DrDeath3191]

I actually haven't heard about an anticipated wii title since.... madworld? Does that console even have games coming out for it?

New Super Mario Bros. Wii will be released in 5 days.

I tend to ignore Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games. Simply because they're basically nintendo's heartbeat and breathing.

That doesn't change the fact that the game is highly anticipated. I'd bet Reggie's right and say that NSMB:Wii will outsell the PS3 version of Modern Warfare by Q1 of next year.

 

[uppitycracker]

You know, I think everybody is a little frustrated with the Wii's performance. In a lot of ways. I know I am, and I never bought one. However, a LOT of that blame goes in the direction of the third party developers, just as much as it does on Nintendo. Hell, EA has published the MOST garbage on that system (that I had seen, anyway), so I find it kinda funny that they're the ones making this kinda comment.

 

[teknoarcanist]

EA. I have this crazy idea, right. Rather than making titles which are licensed iterations of larger franchises, and which impotently attempt to cash in on the vogue gimmick of motion controls by leveraging low development costs...you could...maybe...make games that don't suck?

Er, wait.

No.

That's a dumb idea, nevermind. Keep on keepin' on. (It's probably the fault of Nintendo or gamers or the Illuminati or something, like always.)

 

[Eric the Orange]

Um, what? last time I checked the Wii has sold more consoles than X-box or PS3 by a wide margin. And well, if you don't like your Wii game sales numbers then don't make games for the Wii.

Personally I think that Nintendo has been self sustaining themselves ever sense the N64. A lot of the great 3rd party developers moved over to the PlayStation shores in those days. Back on the SNES and NES, for every great Nintendo game there were 10 great games from other companys. But on the N64, GC, and Wii it's more of A 1-to-1 ratio.

Of coarse hand held systems is a different story entirely.

 

[Snotnarok]

I'm pretty sure this is your fault EA, if you know it's not working out and you keep releasing games for it, that's your fault. Nintendo is in their own little world making lots of money.

 

[Agrael]

Nintendo Wii ... either a)Upgrade it's software to make it look... DECENT. or b)burn it.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

I think that's an extremely short-sighted and inconsiderate statement.

It might be a little unfair. It might be true that he's still looking for unique IPs that can bring in more customers to EA. Supporting new and unique ideas can be difficult, and having a monetary base upon which to rely might help those efforts.

That said, the sort of players who eagerly wait outside the local game stores for the latest Madden release and the ones who pre-order a new role-playing game tend not to mix. I might be somewhat biased as I reside firmly in the latter category and more than once have had my head put down a toilet by the former.

I think blaming the Wii for a lack of success when Madden exists and always draws plenty of players and therefore revenue smacks of, as Russ put it, sour grapes. I might have overstepped in trying to make my point and, if that's the case, I'm sure the jury of the court of public opinion can be instructed to disregard my remarks.

 

[pwnzerstick]

Hey Mr Riccitiello, I have an idea! How about you, oh, advertise your games a little, hmm? The only place I've seen an ad for Dead Space Extraction is on IGN (Great game by the way, guys!). If you want to penetrate that great 'casual' market, let them know about your game. Hell, you did it for the original Dead Space. As for the multi-platform games, ads tend to show the XBox 360 or PS3 versions of the game. Try letting people know that it's on the Wii as well.

I realy can't think of any good games on all 3 platforms that are the same on 360 and ps3 as they are on the wii.

 

[DrDeath3191]

Hey Mr Riccitiello, I have an idea! How about you, oh, advertise your games a little, hmm? The only place I've seen an ad for Dead Space Extraction is on IGN (Great game by the way, guys!). If you want to penetrate that great 'casual' market, let them know about your game. Hell, you did it for the original Dead Space. As for the multi-platform games, ads tend to show the XBox 360 or PS3 versions of the game. Try letting people know that it's on the Wii as well.

I realy can't think of any good games on all 3 platforms that are the same on 360 and ps3 as they are on the wii.

Well, there's Call of Duty: World at War, the upcoming Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Reflex (which unfortunately no one will buy. I think it's looks great, Treyarch impressed me.), Ghost Busters, the various sports titles that get released every year... I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember off of the top of my head.

 

[Mr. Fister]

I have an even better idea. STOP MAKING GAMES FOR IT. It's a black hole of finances, and any retard can see that. Look at the 360/PS3. They are making tons of cash. Leave the dead end console and come back where you belong.

Games on the PS3/Xbox cost an extortionate amount of money to make compared to the Wii. Less costs mean less copies of a game have to be sold to break even. Only games on the Xbox/PS3 that sell past a million or so have any real chance to make large profits, whilst the same game on the Wii would only need to sell a fraction of that to make a similar profit.

With the current costs of gaming, i doubt very very few game make "tons of cash" anyway...

Exactly. With different development costs comes different expectations. It's why EA considers Dead Space selling 1.5 million total copies as underperforming, while Sega can be pleased with House of the Dead: Overkill selling 350k units. And you can guarantee that Suda51 wouldn't have made No More Heroes 2 if he wasn't happy with only 400k units sold.

And what Russ Pitts said is true. That guy has no right to be frustrated with poor sales because he's not doing enough to encourage sales. I didn't see a single ad for Dead Space: Extraction on TV, and internet ads don't sell worth crap. And his logic is just plain faulty. Third-party games aren't selling because there aren't enough first-party games? In what world does that make sense? He's just trying to blame something else for his losses, and not own up to his mistakes.

 

[axia777]

I have an even better idea. STOP MAKING GAMES FOR IT. It's a black hole of finances, and any retard can see that. Look at the 360/PS3. They are making tons of cash. Leave the dead end console and come back where you belong.

Actually, the 360 and PS3 are bleeding money. Nintendo is the only company that actually profits on console sales.

Plus, look at how Nintendo markets their games. They know the 'hardcore' will buy them, no question. What do they do about the 'casuals'? They make TV ads. And wouldn't you know it, they have the best selling games of this generation!

Only the console makers(Sony and Microsoft)are losing money. The third party publishers are actually making good money off of the PS3 and the 360.

 

[DrDeath3191]

I have an even better idea. STOP MAKING GAMES FOR IT. It's a black hole of finances, and any retard can see that. Look at the 360/PS3. They are making tons of cash. Leave the dead end console and come back where you belong.

Actually, the 360 and PS3 are bleeding money. Nintendo is the only company that actually profits on console sales.

Plus, look at how Nintendo markets their games. They know the 'hardcore' will buy them, no question. What do they do about the 'casuals'? They make TV ads. And wouldn't you know it, they have the best selling games of this generation!

Only the console makers(Sony and Microsoft)are losing money. The third party publishers are actually making good money off of the PS3 and the 360.

Yes, and the third parties would too if they bothered to advertise their games more. It galls me that this guy is blaming the Wii itself for not selling their games. The only places I see ads for Wii games is on gaming sites like these. The problem with that method is that the company is not reaching 80% of the Wii's demographic. Point being: if you want to sell a Wii game, you need to advertise it.

 

[BigFurry]

Personally I hate EA as a publisher. When they get a publishing contract they start pressing the developers for more content faster so it tends to fall greatly in quality after a few years.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Dude. If he wants better sales, he should release some hardcore games and not games for faggy casuals. Jeez! Its not rocket science!

So more games with guns huh? Never fails I guess...

 

[BigFurry]

Dude. If he wants better sales, he should release some hardcore games and not games for faggy casuals. Jeez! Its not rocket science!

So more games with guns huh? Never fails I guess...

I wouldn't say games with guns. Just games that aren't party games or have some gimmicky theme for the motion control.