EA has no titles in development for Wii U
- Thread starter dagamer
- Start date
@shanselman One more. Nintendo platforms have always been very poor revenue-wise for third parties. Only Mario and Zelda make money.
Source: https://twitter.com/BobSummerwill/status/335385936437325825 (Bob Summerwill, Senior SE and Architect at EA Sports)
I'm just wondering if he's allowed to publicly say stuff like that. At any company trying to save face with the relationship of a partner like Nintendo, that's often a fireable offense.
That rumor keeps floating around but that doesn't make sound business sense, especially when a more plausible and more obvious reason is staring at us in the face: poor sales of games. If there were plenty of money to be made on the Wii U (as compared to the resources and money needed to port those games), EA almost certainly would have done some already.
Especially with the financial shape EA is in and disappointing quarterly results, there is no reason to chase good money after bad. Even when the Wii was selling like hotcakes in the US, no one was buying Madden for it: http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?nam...sher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=200. The Wii version was outsold buy the PS2 version had its success out 3 years prior!
Writing has been on the wall for several years. It has nothing to do with Origin.
Yep! They would have been a heck of a lot smarter to go with something more powerful and more standard. I guess you could call the design of the Wii U 'willful ignorance'.
It would be 5 years and 4 years respectively. Anyway they could do that but they would need a brilliant idea first. They can't throw a machine out in the market and expect it to win simply on performance. Their win/loss rate for gimmicks is 50% in recent time and less than that if you consider things like the virtual boy.
Launching a new console has no benefit if 3rd party developers have no faith in the system. This actually goes WAY back to the N64. Heck, even the NES, look at this trend:
NES: 61.91 million
SNES: 49.1 million
N64: 32.93 million
Gamecube: 21.74 million
Wii: 99.84 million ("lightning in a bottle")
Wii U: 3.45 million LTD (selling slower than the Gamecube).
Ignoring the Wii as a statistical outlier, It's really not that hard to see the stark trend that every Nintendo system has been doing worse than its predecessor. It's really want killed the Dreamcast, lack of faith in the console supporting publishers. It's something the PS4 and next Xbox have in spades, despite not selling a single unit and won't for months.
Bagel seed
Veteran
There are some who would, no doubt. But it's a dwindling amount as the years go on... and nicely illustrated by your list. So Wii may have only actually sold 15-20 mil to the core Ninty crowd, while the rest were all moms, pops, grannies, and your dog, never to come back to the fold.
Also, right now that box is $350 (the $300 version is gimped), so the answer is a clear and resounding NO.
As people brought up, EA did the same for the Dreamcast, and we know how that turned out. There sure is still faint chances of WiiU seeing a better and than sega's last console, but they are looking an awfull lot like them right now, the main difference is, sega was trying. They were in the edge of bankrupency and yet kept investing in and pushing out content for that system as much as they could, while nintendo has been sitting in a pile of money and isn't bottering to move an inch. I just wonder what is behind their thinking.
I heard that as a rumour, and you might have a point there.
Actually, an EA's engineer has literally said that "the WiiU is crap".
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/ea-engineer-says-the-wii-u-is-crap-6408550
The tweets have since been deleted, but they are real. EA making friends.. and this reminds me of the Microsoft guy and his jokes about the always online thingy.
Still rich or not, Nintendo are survivalists this generation.
I heard that as a rumour, and you might have a point there.
Actually, an EA's engineer has literally said that "the WiiU is crap".
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/ea-engineer-says-the-wii-u-is-crap-6408550
The tweets have since been deleted, but they are real. EA making friends.. and this reminds me of the Microsoft guy and his jokes about the always online thingy.
Still rich or not, Nintendo are survivalists this generation.
They have too much money to go bankrupt, however if they were to launch a new console 4 years from now, I don't see them generating enough 3rd party interest to be worth it to them. They would basically retreat into their handheld business. In fact, we've already seen them admit that they've integrated their handheld and console teams, which, freely interpreted, is an admission on some level that this can't continue forever. I mean, that trend is BAD. Nintendo only has one console that overall sold more units than any of Sony's platforms (Wii vs. PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP). This is a deeply rooted problem.
Can you post where did you get those numbers?
Wikipedia.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Uhhh PSP is a handheld, just like VITA, and both sold or are selling far less than the DS and 3DS so it's really only the ps1 and ps2 that sold more.
Nintendo just screwed up by making a console that is too expensive and too slow and too hard to port ps360 games to. If they made a 250 euro box that could run ps360 ports with the press of a button they would have been fine. Instead they did everything they way they shouldn't have done it.
You make quite a good point, an excellent point really, Nintendo aren't dead as a company, but if they don't do something both their handheld and home console markets will disappear right from under them.
My opinion of Nintendo is that they are far too careful. They don't take risks, nor do they consider wider possibilities such as the music player market when they had such a large install base. I feel their mindset of making hardware suitable only for playing games has closed off many of the wider possibilities which could have come about had they used more capable and extensible hardware.
I just want to repeat this because it really is spot on:
The 1990 reference is apt because that era really is the last time Nintendo was commanding enough in the market that 3rd parties flocked to them to make games. Their spat with Sony over the PlayStation peripheral and with Square over CDs is long standing.
In the N64 era: people were like "Cartridges still? But why?" when CDs were all the rage.
In the Gamecube era: people were like "Mini DVDs? But why?" and "No online? But why?" when dual-layer DVDs and online capable systems had a ton of value.
In the Wii era: people were like "No HD? But why?" when HD graphics were all the rage.
Again, this is a long seeded problem.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Not it's not. Your missing the point.
N64: No large, cheap cd's, no. But almost no loading times and an almost undestructable medium.
GC: Small, cheap and powerful. Yes the mini dvd's are a bit silly but at the time online didn't really matter much yet. Xbox was the only one offering decent online anyway because the gimped PS2 online wasn't exactly something to write home about either.
Wii: No HD but than again, nintendo didn't charge 600 euro's for their console either. It was a small, cheap device with a interresting controller.
Now you might not agree with the decisions Nintendo made but you must atleast admit their is some reasonable thought put into it.
Wiiu on the other hand is the exact opposite. It's not cheap, it's not powerful and it doesn't really offer anything new.
N64: No large, cheap cd's, no. But almost no loading times and an almost undestructable medium.
GC: Small, cheap and powerful. Yes the mini dvd's are a bit silly but at the time online didn't really matter much yet. Xbox was the only one offering decent online anyway because the gimped PS2 online wasn't exactly something to write home about either.
Wii: No HD but than again, nintendo didn't charge 600 euro's for their console either. It was a small, cheap device with a interresting controller.
Now you might not agree with the decisions Nintendo made but you must atleast admit their is some reasonable thought put into it.
Wiiu on the other hand is the exact opposite. It's not cheap, it's not powerful and it doesn't really offer anything new.
That's exactly what I'm seeing. 3rd parties don't seem interested in supporting Nintendo machines, and Nintendo have themselves to blame for that. If N. were to make a new console, that'd have to make an amazing machine that attracts devs, and provide amazing tools and services and sweeteners to get the devs on board, and that's ignoring the competition. I don't see that happening. N. has marginalised itself and something remarkably would have to happen for that to change.
Actually they would 'just' have to mimic the ps4/oo. Call amd and ask for a cpu/gpu?
As for the U i won't declare it a failure until we see the sales after a reduction in price that puts it where it should be compared to next gen. I can't be the only one waiting for that to happen so I can buy it...
I don't think mimic would work though, because I don't see 3rd parties as willing to support yet another console that does exactly the same as the other three (counting PC). Releasing the same HW as PS4 wouldn't be enough IMO. They'd need to release something that get mainstream gamer attention, which would be more hardware for less money to get them to switch from PS and XB to Nintendo. Either that or some incredible new experience that greatly improves the CODs and Gears and Fifas and Maddens of this world like a headset based console. I don't see a place for more of the same - the market is saturated and there's nothing in it for 3rd parties. MS and Sony are even tackling issues like ease of publishing to make it an easier, fairer experience, so Nintendo won't have much room to compete on services. Short of allowing developers to publish their games with no license fees, I don't know what N. could do to make the effort of targeting a new N. platform appealing.