EA Sports Boss Says Wii Ports Don't Work

[Andy Chalk]

EA Sports Boss Says Wii Ports Don't Work

There's a good reason why PlayStation 3 [http://www.wii.com] franchise: EA Sports boss Peter Moore says one does not simply port down to the Wii.

Speaking at the Nintendo Dpad [http://www.mi6conference.com/] report. "You simply can't take what you're doing on the PS3 and Xbox and port - thats a dirty word- down to the Wii," he said.

The Wii is substantially different from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 - which are substantially similar - and its reduced processing power and motion-sensing controller means developers can, and often must, make significant changes to games developed for the Wii even when they're directly tied in to existing franchises. Grand Slam Tennis [http://www.easports.com] for the Wii, which comes out in June, "EA has never shipped a tennis game."

EA CEO John Riccitiello recently said the company wanted to Dead Space: Extraction [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/89184-EA-Wants-To-Rival-Nintendo-On-The-Wii], a rail shooter based on EA's hit survival horror franchise, due out in fall of this year.


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[internutt]

Thank goodness EA finally gets it.

In order to be a success on a new platform you need to use the platform to make the software, rather than bring the software to the platform.

Hopefully that made sense.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Oh good, they know not to just take a preexisting game and shoehorn motion controls in, maybe Wii'll (oh god, I'm sorry) get some better third-party games now.

 

[Tech Team FTW!]

"...port - thats a dirty word..."

What else is new? : P

 

[randommaster]

I'm glad someone high up has voiced this, because this has been an issue with me for a long time now. Bas Wii ports has actually been nominated for several "worst/most annoying thing in gaming" a few times by several different award shows. (it won a few of them, too) It's like trying to run crysis on a computer chosen totally at random from every computer on Earth, there's a really good chance it won't end well.

I really hope EA is crazy successful with this strategy, because otherwise we won't see any significant effort from most developers.

By the way, is anybody looking forward to The Conduit?

 

[super_smash_jesus]

I'm glad someone high up has voiced this, because this has been an issue with me for a long time now. Bas Wii ports has actually been nominated for several "worst/most annoying thing in gaming" a few times by several different award shows. (it won a few of them, too) It's like trying to run crysis on a computer chosen totally at random from every computer on Earth, there's a really good chance it won't end well.

I really hope EA is crazy successful with this strategy, because otherwise we won't see any significant effort from most developers.

By the way, is anybody looking forward to The Conduit?

yes I am looking forward to the conduit, hopefully it sets the bar fir FPS on the Wii.

It really seems like EA is setting their sights on the Wii now, probably because of the larger user base to turn in more profit. At least we may be coming to a slow down to shovel ware and ports.

 

[randommaster]

I'm glad someone high up has voiced this, because this has been an issue with me for a long time now. Bas Wii ports has actually been nominated for several "worst/most annoying thing in gaming" a few times by several different award shows. (it won a few of them, too) It's like trying to run crysis on a computer chosen totally at random from every computer on Earth, there's a really good chance it won't end well.

I really hope EA is crazy successful with this strategy, because otherwise we won't see any significant effort from most developers.

By the way, is anybody looking forward to The Conduit?

yes I am looking forward to the conduit, hopefully it sets the bar fir FPS on the Wii.

It really seems like EA is setting their sights on the Wii now, probably because of the larger user base to turn in more profit. At least we may be coming to a slow down to shovel ware and ports.

As long as the Wii is the most popular console, the shovelware will continue.

However, if EA's strategy works, then it will mean that games like Force Unleashed will not happen on the Wii anymore, as developers will see that actually spending time on Wii games is worth it. That game could have been awesome, but a quick port ruined it.