EA To Nintendo: Wii'll Come Back If U Sell More Boxes

[Angelous Wang]

Whilst I think the Wii U is utter junk myself, the reason EA's games aren't selling is because they are wrong type of games.

The Wii U's main audience is kids, mums and housewives.

Madden, FIFA, Need For Speed and Mass Effect are not for these audiences. The audiences for these games are primarily mid-teen males to full adult males. The majority of which use Playstaion, Xbox or PC as their primary gaming device, meaning even if they had a Wii U they would get the prettier version on their primary platform.

EA need to ship a game for the correct audience, then they will sell.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

And then Nintendo looked at EA, after carefully considering their past...


I now imagine that when EA dies, there's going to be a Margaret Thatcher-like celebration on forums and in game stores everywhere.

 

[xPixelatedx]

"The only thing they can do to fix it is to sell more boxes," says EA's Frank Gibeau, on the current dismal fate of Nintendo's Wii U.

"sell more boxes"... "dismal fate". I see the 3DS and everything involving it has now been removed from everyone's memories. I didn't realize the internet has a neuralizeing effect.

It's already shipped four titles - Madden, FIFA, Need For Speed and Mass Effect - but those titles just aren't selling, because the Wii U itself hasn't sold enough boxes.

Maybe they aren't selling because of... ya know, the fact that no one, and I mean NO ONE buys a Nintendo Console to play Mass Effect!? Copypasta games aren't the selling point of a Nintendo console, they're the selling point of Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo can hold their own, as they've proven time and time again they simply don't need third parties very much. The wii was an amazing seller, but third party games still did terrible; it doesn't matter that the wii outsold the PS3 and 360 combined. Maybe Madden, FIFA, Need For Speed and Mass Effect aren't the games you should bring to a console who's owners paid good money exclusively to have pure, stupid fun? You want to sell games on a Nintendo console? Make games like Nintendo makes.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I really can't imagine why ME3 as the last part of a trilogy wouldn't sell on a plattform on which the first two parts aren't available.

Yes... I mean, I own a Wii U, and I find mass effect 3 something I'd probably buy...

Except that I have mass effect 1 and 2 on PC... And I can't bring myself to get part 3 on a different system. Especially one that can't play parts one and two at all...

Seems like a really poorly thought out move.

 

[Morsomk_v1legacy]

Snip

You know Jeff(can I call you Jeff?), you are maybe starting to freak me out with the whole talk of about "which game is more popular for little kids", it might just be the puffin that I'm eating though. My trainer gives me the strangest things to eat.

OT. Yup, good ol' EA. Bastards of the industry, one second they are swinging their dicks at Nintendo and shouting stuff like "fucking nintendo and their dumb system, cant even handle our engines even though it is our job to optimize the shit" and then the next second they are saying "Yeah, our old friend ninty ain't getting shit from us unless they start selling the damn console.

I'm really, really starting to get pissed off with the way EA has been behaving these last 6 months. It's starting to get to the point of me having a hard time choosing which one to dislike more, Microsoft or EA by their behavior.

 

[TomPreston]

Last generation this same sabotaging tactic was used with great effect on the Wii. Developers would make bad ports and crappy mini-game compilations rather than making original games for it, wouldn't market them, and then proceeded to blame Nintendo for their "poor sales." I'm really glad that this generation at least gamers have open eyes and realize that this sort of nonsense isn't really Nintendo's fault and that the devs are just lazy or spineless.

 

[Antwerp Caveman]

So they released games that were already out for a while and are surprised that they don't get opening weekend numbers? Worst argument ever.
Were any Gamepad features included in these games?

 

[Chaos James]

You know EA, you could just stay away from the Wii U. I don't mind, really. I don't mind missing out on Mirror's Edge 2 if it means getting rid of you. Next time you want to release a Trilogy on a console, release THE WHOLE Trilogy. I would of bought the Mass Effect collection for my Wii U, but it never came.

 

[spartandude]

Perhaps you could just work on some titles with budgets that take the smaller user base into consideration?

Nonsense, they can only release games with Call Of Duty sized budgets otherwise they wont sell like Call Of Duty, and EA being world class intellects make games unless they feel like it will sell as well as.... you guessed it, Dead Space 3, ughh i mean Call Of Duty

 

[Dragonbums]

EA is certainly playing an interesting game atm.
First they denounce the WiiU, then they state that they'd like a balance between Sony and MS and then say they might come to WiiU after all.

I think they're really just trying to grab the best deals everywhere they can get and play them off as best as they can.

The publishers are playing a fucking insane game with Nintendo.

They whine like crazy that they can't sell games on it because of first party stuff outshining them.

So Nintendo doesn't bring it's first party stuff for 9 months.

So they don't release games for the Wii U because it hasn't sold enough units?

Seems legit. It'd help if EA wasn't hellbent on doing things backwards, they released Mass Effect 3 on Wii U the same day as the trilogy for less on every other format. What did they think was going to happen?

The publishers have a reason to be wary of how Nintendo does things. The Wii is the perfect example.

It wasn't because Nintendo's 1st party games were "outshining" the 3rd party. It was Nintendo's rigorous family orientated marketing that killed the chances for a lot of 3rd party games to do well. Capcom's Zack and Wiki would not have failed had there not been the notion that the Wii was the console that your child and grandfather could play together.

Games like MadWorld (even with the rampant TV and internet ads) failed due to the Wii's image as the console that mummy and daddy can play with their kids. Kind of hard to sell a game where you constantly kill people in a grindhouse film fashion on that kind of console don't you think?

Tatsunoko VS Capcom sold even world that the 2 above and it was a fighting game. But it was a much more competitive fighting game than Smash Bros and such, so on the Wii it was even more niche than fighting games typically are.

Meanwhile Nintendo markets their first party games and pushed a philosophy onto the Wii. That philosophy hurt some publishers.

SO I can't say I can blame the publishers for being a little pissed here. They couldn't sell well on the console that sold the most. And the "they should make better games" argument fails when we see these same publishers and developers making games on the consoles that sold half as well and selling miles better. Something doesn't make senses. It's either something Nintendo's doing or the publishers are making bad games on only Nintendo's console, and the latter isn't as likely.

Nintendo not making 1st party games for the WiiU's first year only shot themselves in the foot. Turns out Nintendo fans wait for the releases before spending hundreds on a console. Who knew?

And at any rate, Mass Effect 3 would not have benefited too much from being released on the WiiU at the same time as the other platforms. The lack of being able to access your previous character would have made sure of that. It worked for the PS3's Mass Effect 2 because A) it was a game that PS3 fans wanted badly, and B) having to choose the choices for 1 previous title with a sequel coming vs. choosing choices for 2 previous titles isn't so bad.


Like I said before on this forum. It's Nintendo's responsibility to sell its console, not EA's, Capcom's or Ubisoft's. And if Nintendo fans want to see better games from the aforementioned companies, then don't ignore their games when they get released like you did on the Wii.

Zack and Wiki was an ignored gem that was passed over by GAMERS. Capcom tried with that one.

What you says make perfect sense, and I completely understand that point of view.

Now however in this gen it's clear that the trash has been cleared up and it's back to Nintendo's "I care about games" group.
Not Grandma and Pop playing hula hoops. It's been evident for a year now, and so far very few companies first off, have taken advantage of not being in direct competition with any of Nintendo's first party titles like Mario Kart, Mario Party, Zelda, and any other quality franchise, and secondly taking advantage of the fact that the WiiU is very uncluttered with junk.
A lot of people are excited for games like the Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 because there is no shovel ware garbage clogging up the system, and those who have it are for the most part lovers of games.
Now Nintendo has open their gates wide open and are willing to put their money where their mouths are (especially with funding Bayonetta 2).

This is the same effect that happened to several games on other consoles. Viva Pinata for example should've been a hit! What happened? It was on the very wrong console. As much as we like to call Nintendo "for kids" let's be honest here. Are Microsoft and Sony really catering to the children crowd? Because I sure as hell was EXCITED for Viva Pinata as a kid and my first assumption was that it was on the Wii. I was very disappointed that it wasn't.
And also on that note, we shun Nintendo now because we don't like the perception that it IS a kids console.
So at the same time your saying it's not third party companies jobs to fund Nintendo products, which is true- however don't complain when the WiiU has no third party titles. Because they all shun Nintendo, you all agree to why they shun Nintendo, and nobody aside from Nintendo fans buy Nintendo products.

It's a two way street. You want Nintendo to cater to a more hard core crowd, then we have to buy a Nintendo product when we clearly see them trying their best to do that. No one said they wanted a WiiU when several hard core titles are scheduled to release on the system. Especially with the huge opening the WiiU has right now to get those games on console with minimal competition.
If it fails now, Nintendo later on or in the next gen will simply stop listening to this "hardcore" crowd and simply do what they are doing because as far as they know, they left the door wide open and only a small few stepped in, and those who didn't are still whining about them.

 

[Johnson McGee]

This is the same risk-averse attitude that has resulted in EA's games becoming increasingly samey. They could take a chance on the WiiU and they needn't do it as a handout to Nintendo. The move would open up the types of games they can make, widen their audience, possibly offer them a break into the mobile market they're so desperately coveting by giving them some ins with touchscreens and casual audiences. But of course they take the safe route and stick with what they know, like a big company is wont to do.

 

[weirdee]

Is the bold quote on top of the article there to illustrate how bonkers they are?

They will be fine once a new Zelda comes out. All the fanboys will pick it up and Nintendo will continue trucking along in 3rd place.

are you saying that the xbone will be somewhere in first or second

are you making that claim now

what a fascinating turn of events. since its release, people on this site have shit all over the wii u. now that theres a new console to hate, people are suddenly jumping to the defense of nintendo

actually, people are still dumping on nintendo

despite the fact that the other console publishers are not expected to have first party games to sell their console and people act like nintendo not doing so is a huge failure on their part, and taking the word of the devs on everything even though on a different day you'd hear people complain about those same devs and how bad they are

not a word on how they keep backing out of agreements so many times that you think would violate the clauses of some contracts

even being treated like butts by microsoft doesn't curb irrationality

 

[Requia]

EA can stuff it.

At this point you should be the ones begging Nintendo to take you back. After your twitter tantrum, and outright lies about what the system can and cannot do, Nintendo is certainly not in the position to beg for YOU to come back. Especially how you guys were going all buddy buddy to the now hated Xbone.

I don't think you read the article.

Unless EA is totally suicidal, going on the Nintendo Wii U is a failed venture already.

On the other hand, Nintendo needs to sell some consoles, and having wildly popular AAA games would do that.

So no, EA has the upper hand here.

As I have pointed out repeatedly, the WiiU is a very well selling console, better than the 360 over the same time period. EA is making irrational demands that a brand new console sell mass amounts of year old games. It's not a failed venture any more than producing games for the XBone or PS4 (which have to date sold 0 units) is a failed venture.

 

[Lee Quitt]

Im sorry but are you accusing EA of making the same game every year? While in the same breath defending Nintendo? Really? Really? You know we are coming up to Mario kart 8 now right? The biggest thing nintendo had at e3 was annother Super Smash Bros.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Well it sort of makes sense. The wii made it pretty clear nintendo consoles are designed to benefit nintendo only with their family friendly image.

They could change that with the wiiu but it really needs some time before that happens and everything just gets overtaken by nintendos own games anyway.

Let nintendo have their bubble and everyone else can focus on the ps4. And maybe xbone but whatever.

 

[Sir Prize]

EA shooting themselves in the foot isn't really anything new. If they were smart they'd just keep their mouths shut and either try to release games on most current consoles (WiiU, Xbox 360 and PS3), or wait until all the new consoles comes out. Their poor management of resources means that they have to a millions of games; they know they won't get that from the WiiU. Another with half a brain-cell probably knows that, because so far around 3-4 million consoles have been sold. They just aren't going to meet their targets.

EA sells titles on more than one platform, that's the best way they can manage with their current way of working. But they shouldn't try blaming it on the WiiU, they are the ones who make games that cost more to create than they can make on launch days. They are the ones who created ports of older games, which they should have guessed wouldn't exactly big in the bucks.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Beacuse let's be honest, EA games don't sell consoles. Nintendo's first party games always sell Nintendo consoles. There's not much EA can do and I find it sad that Nintendo fans are blaming EA for not making games for the console with such low sales.


Its a business.

Its just as a silly to get mad at Ubisoft for making Rayman Legends a multiplatform title. Rayman Origins sold the least on the Wii, making Legends and exclusive would have been a huge mistake.

Again, its business.

It's not EA's obligation to make games for the Wii U to sell it. Nintendo made the console, Nintendo should be responsible for moving its units. Releasing the Wii U with no major 1st party games was a very damaging idea. The Wii U can't hold on to JUST Super Mario 3D World alone for the holiday season. And the new Smash Bros comes out next spring so we can forget about that for the holidays.

The Wii U is going to need more than Mario, Pikmin and The Wonderful 101 (so basically Mario and 2 niche titles) to sell units.

The Wii actually had a stellar first year with it releases. Seems like the Wii U was put out a year earlier than expected to make up for Nintendo's recent losses.....

First Bold: No, Rayman Origins sold the least on PC and 3DS. Rayman Origins did fairly well on the Wii. Quit saying that RO sold the least on the Wii.

Second Bold: Uhuh, so, when Microsoft and Sony hardly have any First party games at launch, it'll only make sense for every 3rd party to up and abandon them, am I right? That's just a convenient Excuse for companies like EA to abandon the WiiU. Also, what's going to be a hard hitter for either Microsoft and Sony when their new consoles launch? There's no way Halo 5 is a launch title, and neither will Final Fantasy XV be one.

First Italicized: I agree with you, that's why it's not going into Christmas with Super Mario 3D World alone. In July, there's Game and Wario; In August, there's Pikmin 3, Disney's Infinity and Rayman Legends; In September, it's the Wonderful 101; In October, there's Wii Party U and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD; in November, there's Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Watch_Dogs; and in December, there's Super Mario 3D World and Wii Fit U. So let's see, all in all there will be 11 good games that will come out for the system by Christmas, and both the XBone and PS4 will only have 2-5 good games at launch. So the WiiU isn't relying on Mario by itself this Christmas.

Second Italicized: The WiiU might not be selling as well as the Wii, but the WiiU has Made Nintendo more Money than the Wii did at Launch [http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a443677/wii-u-grosses-more-than-wii-at-launch-despite-selling-fewer-units.html]. That is quite a feet, considering how well the Wii sold and then considering how the WiiU sold...

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Beacuse let's be honest, EA games don't sell consoles. Nintendo's first party games always sell Nintendo consoles. There's not much EA can do and I find it sad that Nintendo fans are blaming EA for not making games for the console with such low sales.


Its a business.

Its just as a silly to get mad at Ubisoft for making Rayman Legends a multiplatform title. Rayman Origins sold the least on the Wii, making Legends and exclusive would have been a huge mistake.

Again, its business.

It's not EA's obligation to make games for the Wii U to sell it. Nintendo made the console, Nintendo should be responsible for moving its units. Releasing the Wii U with no major 1st party games was a very damaging idea. The Wii U can't hold on to JUST Super Mario 3D World alone for the holiday season. And the new Smash Bros comes out next spring so we can forget about that for the holidays.

The Wii U is going to need more than Mario, Pikmin and The Wonderful 101 (so basically Mario and 2 niche titles) to sell units.

The Wii actually had a stellar first year with it releases. Seems like the Wii U was put out a year earlier than expected to make up for Nintendo's recent losses.....

First Bold: No, Rayman Origins sold the least on PC and 3DS. Rayman Origins did fairly well on the Wii. Quit saying that RO sold the least on the Wii.

Second Bold: Uhuh, so, when Microsoft and Sony hardly have any First party games at launch, it'll only make sense for every 3rd party to up and abandon them, am I right? That's just a convenient Excuse for companies like EA to abandon the WiiU. Also, what's going to be a hard hitter for either Microsoft and Sony when their new consoles launch? There's no way Halo 5 is a launch title, and neither will Final Fantasy XV be one.

First Italicized: I agree with you, that's why it's not going into Christmas with Super Mario 3D World alone. In July, there's Game and Wario; In August, there's Pikmin 3, Disney's Infinity and Rayman Legends; In September, it's the Wonderful 101; In October, there's Wii Party U and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD; in November, there's Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Watch_Dogs; and in December, there's Super Mario 3D World and Wii Fit U. So let's see, all in all there will be 11 good games that will come out for the system by Christmas, and both the XBone and PS4 will only have 2-5 good games at launch. So the WiiU isn't relying on Mario by itself this Christmas.

Second Italicized: The WiiU might not be selling as well as the Wii, but the WiiU has Made Nintendo more Money than the Wii did at Launch [http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a443677/wii-u-grosses-more-than-wii-at-launch-despite-selling-fewer-units.html]. That is quite a feet, considering how well the Wii sold and then considering how the WiiU sold...

To your first point.
Until Valve starts telling people how many sales they get, and as soon as people like the NPD start counting digital sales, I'll take the PC version of Rayman Origins selling the least with a grain of salt. The point still stands that Rayman Origins sold the least on the Wii. Frankly, it should have sold the most on the Wii considering the market.


To your second point.
You do realize that Nintendo consoles have always sold based on Nintendo's 1st party games right? The same can't be said for the PlayStation or Xbox Brands. That and the fact that most 3rd party games that show up on the PS/Xboxes don't show up on Nintendo consoles due to the bad relations Nintendo has with the 3rd party and how Nintendo fans will always buy most things Nintendo before even looking at the 3rd party. Sony and MS can put out games and still not scare away the 3rd party on their consoles because they hit the same audience.

But even when publishers make great games for the Nintendo audience, their games usually get ignored for Zelda or Mario, so games like Zack and Wiki by Capcom wind up in a bargain bin. This happens while a DS Mario port (Super Mario Bros Wii) sells gangbusters.

To your 3rd point.
A lot of the games you mentioned will not sell the Wii U. Game and Wario is yet another minigame compilation and I really think Nintendo should stop shoving those down people's throats. Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 are going to be too niche to be considered console sellers. Wii Party U. -_-. So Mario Party with Miis? Again, not something I'd call a system seller, or anything to go crazy about. Wind Waker HD is a remake but hasn't been milked like Ocarina of time. But remakes don't sell consoles either. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze looks decent. Watch Dogs is going to be better on the other consoles and isn't exclusive to the Wii U so it doesn't help your point. And Rayman Legends is going multiplatform once again. And Wii Fit U? Are you serious? And to top it of Disney's ripoff of Skylanders, which is also multiplatform.

Out of those 11 "good" games you mentioned, 1 is an abysmal exercise game, 2 are mini game compilations, 2 are way too niche to consider helping the Wii U's sales, 1 is a remake, and 3 are multiplatform titles. So 9 out of those 11 titles won't help Wii U sales much. And let's be honest, you're really reaching for some points here trying to call Wii Fit U a good game that will help sell Wii Us. Nintendo's marketing has ditched the family orientated market, so I can't see people rushing to the store for a badly calibrated exercise machine.

To your 4th point. While Nintendo has made more money off the Wii U's launch than the Wii there are things to consider. First is the fact that the Wii couldn't stay on a shelf for the first 2 years. Some speculate that Nintendo did that on purpose and I tend to agree as it'd be pretty naive to think that Nintendo didn't have Foxconn make enough Wii consoles to sell. Secondly, Nintendo is still losing money overall as a company.

Look, Nintendo really should have accessed more of their older IPs instead of have Wii Fit U or Wii Party U or bogus crap like that. We should have had another Star Fox announced by now. We should have a freaking non spinoff Pokemon game on the console that utilizes online. Another F-Zero for people who are kinda sick of Mario Kart's rubberband AI. A Fire Emblem games that puts some practical use of the tablet on the table. A Wario game that doesn't involve minigames being the focus.

Point is, Nintendo can do better to sell its own console, and Nintendo's fans crying at EA and Ubisoft for not making games for the console is really pathetic to see.