EA Has "No Games in Development" For Wii U

[BrotherRool]

I recognize that the Wii-U is more comparable to the current generation that the "next generation" that people are still awaiting. But I'd love to hear a more technical explanation of why exactly the Wii-U seems to be giving the people responsible for the Frostbite engine such disgust. Such descriptions tend to be dumbed-down and oversimplified, but reports suggested the Wii-U was actually at least a bit more powerful than the 360; why, then, having scaled back their efforts for so long to fit inside the current-gen box, is the Wii-U such a hurdle?

Or is this just a case of "not going to be the market's shiniest new toy, so not going to bother trying?"

http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/01/17/wiiu-memory-story/
This explains a lot of it. Whilst the Wii U is more powerful than current gen consoles in a lot of ways it's 1) Got a weird architecture, it took a year or so to learn the PS3's and if people are predicting the Wii U won't be a success then maybe they aren't bothering with the effort

2)The Wii U is actually 40% slower than the 360 and PS3 at using it's RAM.

I think there are ways to circumvent the problem and get 360/PS3 type performance but it's a bit of a worrying choke

Yeah, this is really fishy to me. EA loves them some casual cash-cow games and lord knows that there would be a large casual market for the Wii U.

But there isn't yet. The Wii U has been out for nearly a year and the casual market hasn't come. If they do get Wii levels of casuals again EA will probably start producing games for them, but that hasn't happened yet (I'm also not certain if EA has that many casual studios to make that sort of game)

 

[Alfador_VII]

Kind of surprised to be honest. They'll probably still be doing ports of say...CoD and Madden.

Nope they've specifically denied this. There will be no Madden game for WiiU, and the Frostbite Engine which runs 99% of what EA make isn't being developed for Wii U.

They said that Frostbite 2 ran very badly, which is surprising at it works fine on 360 and PS3, and they're not even going to try converting Frostbite 3.

 

[Bindal]

These are now how many developers and publishers deciding to not get games on the WiiU? I honestly lost count. About 5 or 6?

 

[VinLAURiA]

Don't take this as defense of EA, but if this is indeed how things went down then Nintendo is just as much at fault as EA is. Nintendo would be the ones that agreed to a stupid deal and, while backing out may have been a prudent choice, they reneged on that deal.

If I borrow from a loan shark, don't pay, and get my legs broken, sure the loan shark and his enforcer broke the law by assaulting me, but I was still to blame for getting involved with them in the first place.

EA is perhaps being petty about it, but its business and they are in a position to do so. If the Wii-U were doing really well, then EA would prolly bite the bullet and develop for the system, but since its not, they have the luxury of making it worse for Nintendo, saving development costs, and not taking a big hit on their sales in the process.

The deal was only ever on the table, it hadn't actually gone through. EA jumped the gun in assuming it would.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Glad to hear it; I'm still steamed over the LP'ers situation

Soon enough, Nintendo won't have to worry about it, cuz they won't have anything to LP

 

[Something Amyss]

Two years after promising an "unprecedented partnership" with Nintendo, EA has nothing in the works for the Wii U.

Well, this is technically an unprecedented partnership....I mean, a partner offering no games is new.

I don't quite understand, how does this make them (or arguably contribute to them being) "evil and stupid"?.

Because blind hate for EA, that's why!

Im ashamed to say I owned a Wii U in hopes that a new Zelda game and Metroid would be in the works but all I got was a repaved HD zelda game that may or may not be out this year.

I honestly don't get why people do this, when they could buy the console later when such games are announced officially or actually out.

It's not in my nature to be dramatic or exaggerate details. I'm saying it because for once it's absolutely true: EA has actually stooped so low as to try to get revenge on Nintendo. Honestly, though: should we expect any better from the #1 Worst Company in America?

That really was quite dramatic. I mean, EA was deemed the worst company in America by a user-submitted poll on a single consumer blog that usually doesn't get this kind of traffic. This sounds like a typical "EA is evil" rant, attributing to malice what could as easily be attributed to stupidity (or even other, less sinister things).

In sticking motives on EA, you're portraying as fact something which you are merely speculating.

 

[Alfador_VII]

These are now how many developers and publishers deciding to not get games on the WiiU? I honestly lost count. About 5 or 6?

Look at it the opposite way. Can you think of any major third party publishers supporting the Wii U at all? Ubisoft did some stuff at launch, but even they are backing away.

 

[Something Amyss]

They said that Frostbite 2 ran very badly, which is surprising at it works fine on 360 and PS3, and they're not even going to try converting Frostbite 3.

It's not all that surprising. The Wii U has RAM and architecture issues that may make it legitimately difficult to work with. And with legitimately more powerful hardware just around the bend, they may see no reason to bother. Especially since they loves them that one engine, and if it doesn't work on that architecture....

EA got pissy with Nintendo because they wouldn't let them put Origin on their online network. So if they're playing happy families with Sony and Microsoft, what does that mean for how their consoles support Origin?

Absolutely nothing.

People are making this into a bigger deal than it needs to be.

 

[VinLAURiA]

That really was quite dramatic. I mean, EA was deemed the worst company in America by a user-submitted poll on a single consumer blog that usually doesn't get this kind of traffic. This sounds like a typical "EA is evil" rant, attributing to malice what could as easily be attributed to stupidity (or even other, less sinister things).

In sticking motives on EA, you're portraying as fact something which you are merely speculating.

Well, you may have a-- Wait, I'm sorry. For a second there I forgot we were talking about EA. In case you haven't heard, the saying is reversed in their case: never attribute to stupidity what can easily be attributed to malice. Speculation? Yeah, with plenty of precedent.

 

[iTuneSpark]

These are now how many developers and publishers deciding to not get games on the WiiU? I honestly lost count. About 5 or 6?

Look at it the opposite way. Can you think of any major third party publishers supporting the Wii U at all? Ubisoft did some stuff at launch, but even they are backing away.

If that was true, then why would they bring AC4, Watch Dogs, and Splinter Cell Blacklist to the U.

In fact, it seems like Ubisoft is the only third-party publisher who is actually supporting the Wii U with their games (and WB Games to a certain extent). They've even gone on record a few times to defend the Wii U. How is this "backing away"?

 

[Gorrath]

I wouldn't say this is 'evil' on EA's part, just disingenuous. That's the real problem. If EA just manned up and said, 'Some of what we had planned for the Wii U is not going to work out like we had hoped.' I wouldn't be so miffed. Accusing people of 'blind EA hate' does not hold up here as people have every reason to find the diea that porting a handful of games over does not fulfill their earlier proclamation.

EA, if ya made a promise, and now ya can't keep it, just man up and explain why. Don't treat us like we're drooling morons.

 

[Alfador_VII]

These are now how many developers and publishers deciding to not get games on the WiiU? I honestly lost count. About 5 or 6?

Look at it the opposite way. Can you think of any major third party publishers supporting the Wii U at all? Ubisoft did some stuff at launch, but even they are backing away.

If that was true, then why would they bring AC4, Watch Dogs, and Splinter Cell Blacklist to the U.

In fact, it seems like Ubisoft is the only third-party publisher who is actually supporting the Wii U with their games (and WB Games to a certain extent). They've even gone on record a few times to defend the Wii U. How is this "backing away"?

OK, yes that's 3 games this year for the Wii U out of about a dozen they're bringing to previous gen consoles. Sad to say, that's the best 3rd party support there is, I just checked.

 

[Something Amyss]

Well, you may have a-- Wait, I'm sorry. For a second there I forgot we were talking about EA. In case you haven't heard, the saying is reversed in their case: never attribute to stupidity what can easily be attributed to malice. Speculation? Yeah, with plenty of precedent.

But still speculation, not "truth."

You were the one claiming not to be prone to drama or exaggeration, remember.

Quick question: Sony has already stated that they're going to allow publishers to deal with DRM and used game sales themselves

You understand that they can already do this, right? Online passes and the like? You understand the non-specific answer given likely applies to that?

To answer your question, I wouldn't put it past them, no. But then, I wouldn't put it past them to require always-on DRM out of the box, but it doesn't make it true or even likely that it's going to happen.

That doesn't translate to ERMAGERD, CONSPIRACY!

 

[VinLAURiA]

But still speculation, not "truth."

You were the one claiming not to be prone to drama or exaggeration, remember.

Precisely. What I made was an educated guess. Speculation, granted, but dramatic or exaggerated? Again, this is EA we're talking about. In any case, this is semantics. The examples I've listed are scenarios the Big N themselves were considering when they rejected the deal. I'm just relaying what's already been documented.

Do a little research and you'll find I'm honestly not exaggerating.

 

[Callate]

http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/01/17/wiiu-memory-story/
This explains a lot of it. Whilst the Wii U is more powerful than current gen consoles in a lot of ways it's 1) Got a weird architecture, it took a year or so to learn the PS3's and if people are predicting the Wii U won't be a success then maybe they aren't bothering with the effort

2)The Wii U is actually 40% slower than the 360 and PS3 at using it's RAM.

I think there are ways to circumvent the problem and get 360/PS3 type performance but it's a bit of a worrying choke

That's just the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks for the link.

 

[ZeroMachine]

I think this is further evidence that Nintendo should ditch the console market and stick to handhelds.