Wii U losing all upcoming EA games

[kupomogli]

Yeah, it's a new console versus a seven and eight year old console, but everyone is saying the ports are poor, when the game has 30fps with little to no frame drops and pc textures. How is it a poor port in comparison to the other consoles when it's better?

I'd say if you were to compare all the other bad ports you've heard of, with poor framerate, texture loading issues(Batman Arkham City,) etc, to the EA releases, the EA releases are the best ports aside from the NFL one where it's missing a mode. EA's ports have been good.

[BetaWolf47]

I don't care either way. After how EA has been lately, I'd go out of my way to not buy any of their titles even if they were on Wii U.

[Tanooki]

I've got ME3 but I regret it, 50/50 because of EA's attitude problem this early into the game and also due to lack of time to put into finishing it for the time being.

Yes some WiiU ports were running poorer, CODBO2 being the notable one. But you also have to look into what real effort went into a port. Was it recoded to work for the strengths of the hardware, or was it dirty, minimal and least effort made possible to get it just to run (which it was.) If you take the halfass approach, you get halfass capabilities and that's true even between the PS2/GC/XB stuff out a decade ago too. Recently that WiiU firmware upgrade people have been reporting not just faster menus for the OS, but also better performance in games in certain areas where drag was notable too. I haven't seen if that has been solidly proven yet (as I don't care enough to look) but if it's not a placebo effect there future titles will benefit from increased CPU and GPU speed boosts whatever they were. I recall someone saying the CPU was up nearly 3x over and the GPU got a few hundred mhz boost(which I'd call a wild fantasy and truly realistic between the two as AMD video chips are highly overclockable without added cooling or stability problems.)

Either way going into EA all they can look at is a system that sold well out of the gate, partly due to predatory pieces of shit trying to scam people on ebay, and other services and then when it bombed a lot went back to the store, and others bought it nice though 2012 and then it dried up due to no new games worth buying other than a couple(if you're into the series/genre.) TO have EA cry like a bitch saying there's no money in it, on a system with a few million units in peoples houses that has stalled on sales isn't entirely fair to just cut ties and run mouthing off like a petulant brat about it in the press. They pulled this shit back in 1999 on Sega and it did the Dreamcast no favors, but Sega also was hemmoraging cash then, Nintendo isn't by any means with their savings and IPs that can carry them far better than anything Sega had to offer.

I think EA will come around in time, others will too, but it will take a steady flow of games in the back half of this year, E3 being critical for exposing things, to do it and probably as I hate to say it, a $50 price drop would get the ball going too WITH GAMES, without would do nothing. When Nintendo finally turns it around and they get like another few million systems in peoples home versus like 50k/mo being moved and a nice steady supply of games out every week or two it will get better. Until they solve the releases issue, and the fact systems aren't moving (lacking games, price probably too) I think EA and others will come back. It's just shitty claiming no money in it this early along when there's little to base no money on.

NIntendo also isn't doing themselves a favor in two other respects. Wii confusion, and advertising. Wii needs to be pulled from the shelf, kill the damned thing, or at least completely stop advertising it as it's confusing to the random buyer who isn't a core gamer in the know. Secondly they need to fire their shit for brains advertising company and get a constant flow of ads for systems and games going at prime time slots on anything from network tv to cartoon network like they did for the Wii, GC, N64, SNES and NES. WiiU runs no ads. It has been out since last year and I've seen 3 ads total which is sickening and all three for hardware, not games.

[Buyatari]

Also, are you suggested that Nintendo's business model is simply to provide hardware to play 1st party games? That is not going to work.

It had better work or they are sunk. The NES and SNES had solid 3rd party software support but no other Nintendo system since then would have survived without the strong 1st party titles provided by Nintendo.

[Rob2600]

It had better work or they are sunk. The NES and SNES had solid 3rd party software support but no other Nintendo system since then would have survived without the strong 1st party titles provided by Nintendo.

Every Nintendo console ever, 1st party games have been the highest sellers. So while I agree that good, popular 3rd party games are important, history has shown that good, popular 1st party Nintendo games are even more important.

[Greg2600]

What EA knows is that the Wii U's existence is at odds with the financial realities of the industry. Exclusives don't pay the bills anymore. And the Wii U is more or less built for them. The original Wii was too, but at least the Wii was in enough homes that there were enough people buying the inferior ports to justify producing them. But the Wii U doesn't even have that on its side. So EA, and any third party for that matter, has to decide between releasing inferior ports of their multiplatform titles on a console that has seen only lukewarm success or making very good games on the Wii U that pretty much have to be exclusive. When the console isn't selling enough to make producing inferior ports worthwhile (at least worthwhile enough to tolerate the negative response to said ports) and exclusives aren't worthwhile period, total abandonment is probably the best option.

This event is just more evidence that the industry needs to reevaluate its spending practices. We need to reel it in enough so that "exclusive" isn't a dirty word. So the Wii U can get its system sellers without it being financial suicide for the publisher.

Wii also capitalized on its VERY low price vs. Sony/MS, and the motion-controller novelty which seems to have faded. My takeaway is why release a system that isn't even as powerful as the outgoing PS3 and 360 (if that EA Engineer is accurate)? I mean, it's like Atari selling the 2600 past the release of the NES, SMS, 7800, TG-16, Genesis AND SNES.

Every Nintendo console ever, 1st party games have been the highest sellers. So while I agree that good, popular 3rd party games are important, history has shown that good, popular 1st party Nintendo games are even more important.

I think the question people have is, where are they? Heck the Dreamcast (which everyone is comparing Wii U to) at least has a ton of SEGA titles at launch (mostly arcade ports).

[Daltone]

Every Nintendo console ever, 1st party games have been the highest sellers. So while I agree that good, popular 3rd party games are important, history has shown that good, popular 1st party Nintendo games are even more important.

Is another salvo of 3D Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Smash Bros etc (which we have seen before) enough to drag people to the console on their own though? For people that just like Nintendo stuff I agree that it is great, but if your interest is 3D platformers, action RPGs and button mashers you can probably get that elsewhere these days.

Saying first party games are always the highest sellers seems a bit dodgy to me. For the NES and the SNES, yes, Nintendo put out the best stuff. For the N64 you had Rare and.. well.. Nintendo turning out decent games (list of all games). For the Gamecube you had Nintendo, a couple of big Capcom games and Retro Studios.. Apart from maybe Eternal Darkness there is nothing that jumps off the complete list as being missing.

When you've got little decent third party support and make unusual choices for the primary controller (yes GC I am including you) then having the first party games as the top sellers isn't a huge surprise.

[CDiablo]

I agree. Damn EA. Damn them for giving Nintendo fanboys the shittiest versioin of Most Wanted. The version with 30fps, no frame drops, PC textures, and the best use of the touch pad compared to every other third party developer. /s

5&1/2 months after the other releases. Nice try though.

I strongly disagree with your premise about most WiiU owners having an Xbox 360 or PS3 available to them. While that may be true of the WiiU owners here, I seriously doubt that's the case for most WiiU owners. I suspect many WiiU owners have a 3DS or DS or Wii available to them. I can't imagine many WiiU owners this early on had 360s and PS3s and decided to pick up the WiiU simply for the handful of Nintendo first party games released to date. That may change once the major flood of Nintendo first party stuff starts hitting, but I just think that younger gamers and families don't play sports games or EA games with the same interest that teenage and twenty something men do. Those guys are never going to be the primary audience for the WiiU just like they weren't for the Wii. The only thing that saved the Wii for EA was there were so many hardware units out there that EA couldn't help but sell copies of whatever they put out there including reskins and shovelware.

I dont really believe that Nintendo consoles are the "family" console as much as they are painted to be. The Wii U seems to be a poorly marketed machine, so I dont think the head in the clouds families that are referred to know about it that much. The people who know about it(and are most likely to drop $300+ on it) are the gaming community. I suspect most are those that still enjoy the Nintendo 1st party games and HAVE to have the new hardware no matter what. What are the best selling games for the Wii U? 1)Nintendo Land(mostly due to bundle) 2)Mario(2/3 of owners own this) 3)Zombi U(1/6 attach rate) 4)Monster Hunter Tri(1/9 attach rate). The 3rd best selling title for the system is 3rd party exclusive mature game. As for sports not being for the "Wii U crowd" The best selling Wii Madden was 08, the first and only true madden released for Wii. Once they decided to make Madden a family friendly("All Play") party game the sales of the series degraded with the least sales coming to the most recent version of Madden. I loved madden 08 for Wii but I wasnt going to give my money to some shit party game version of Madden after that. The Need for speed games as well as Fifa for Wii sold well over 1 million initially then degraded as they gimped the games(some had less features/more bugs than their PS2 counterparts).

[Bojay1997]

5&1/2 months after the other releases. Nice try though.



I dont really believe that Nintendo consoles are the "family" console as much as they are painted to be. The Wii U seems to be a poorly marketed machine, so I dont think the head in the clouds families that are referred to know about it that much. The people who know about it(and are most likely to drop $300+ on it) are the gaming community. I suspect most are those that still enjoy the Nintendo 1st party games and HAVE to have the new hardware no matter what. What are the best selling games for the Wii U? 1)Nintendo Land(mostly due to bundle) 2)Mario(2/3 of owners own this) 3)Zombi U(1/6 attach rate) 4)Monster Hunter Tri(1/9 attach rate). The 3rd best selling title for the system is 3rd party exclusive mature game. As for sports not being for the "Wii U crowd" The best selling Wii Madden was 08, the first and only true madden released for Wii. Once they decided to make Madden a family friendly("All Play") party game the sales of the series degraded with the least sales coming to the most recent version of Madden. I loved madden 08 for Wii but I wasnt going to give my money to some shit party game version of Madden after that. The Need for speed games as well as Fifa for Wii sold well over 1 million initially then degraded as they gimped the games(some had less features/more bugs than their PS2 counterparts).

Your own stats just made my point. 4/6 of WiiU owners have Mario. Only 1/6 have ZombiiU. That's a 4:1 ratio. I would agree with you that the 1/6 represent more traditional gamers/early adopters. As for knowing about WiiU, I have two different co-workers who aren't exactly gamers and they bought the WiiU for their kids because their kids were huge Mario fans and wanted the newest game. They also liked the whole tablet thing. People beyond gamers know about WiiU. Heck, it has its own display in every Target store which isn't exactly some obscure chain. People just don't care very much about it right now and certainly not like they did about the Wii.

[TonyTheTiger]

The Wii U really is like the Dreamcast in that it's caught between generations, running in a race it shouldn't be. The Dreamcast was squaring off with (and arguably losing to) the PS1. But the Wii U might be in an even worse position since it seems to want us to be impressed that it can handle Mass Effect 3. It doesn't have the same launch vibe as other consoles, Dreamcast included. With other launches and within the early adoption period, you're supposed to be impressed that the console is doing things the previous gen couldn't, not that it's doing things the previous gen did a year prior. I've never seen a next gen system come out where the initial goal seems to be to match the previous generation. Imagine if the Genesis launched with an exact replica of Castlevania II.

I think the question people have is, where are they? Heck the Dreamcast (which everyone is comparing Wii U to) at least has a ton of SEGA titles at launch (mostly arcade ports).

Exactly. They aren't hitting hard enough with their own titles to make up for the dearth of quality multiplatform support that they'll most likely suffer once the new consoles launch. Where's the urgency?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

It would probably help to some small degree if Nintendo would actually put PLAYABLE demos on the Wii-U kiosks at Gamestop, Toys R Us, Best Buy, etc.

I've only ever seen the software lineup with Rayman as a playable demo. All the other games listed just allow you to watch a trailer.

I really don't get their reluctance to put a few playable games on there that show off what the system can do with the tablet controller.

At least with the 3DS kiosks they've put the most current 1st party games on there.

[The 1 2 P]

^ Thats just one more example of how poorly Nintendo has marketed the Wii U so far.

[Greg2600]

Good Lord they STILL haven't replaced the games in the kiosks? One of the previews was for Aliens Colonial Marines, and that was canceled!

[Rob2600]

I think the question people have is, where are they? Heck the Dreamcast (which everyone is comparing Wii U to) at least has a ton of SEGA titles at launch (mostly arcade ports).

I agree, Nintendo should've launched with stronger 1st party games- a new Smash Bros., Pikmin, Donkey Kong Country, Metroid, Pokemon, or 3D Super Mario game, or a new Wii Sports or Wii Fit. Even a new F-Zero, Star Fox, or Wave Race would've been nice.

Good Lord they STILL haven't replaced the games in the kiosks? One of the previews was for Aliens Colonial Marines, and that was canceled!

GameStop at Willowbrook has New Super Mario Bros Wii U running for people to play. Maybe other stores do, too. But yeah, Nintendo really needs to ramp up its demo stations and overall marketing strategy.

Remember all those cool "Wii would like to play" commercials in 2006-2007? Those were on TV constantly. Where are the Wii U commercials?

[Gameguy]

But yeah, Nintendo really needs to ramp up its demo stations and overall marketing strategy.

I still haven't played a 3DS yet, the only kiosk I've seen was at a Best Buy right after it came out and I didn't play it because the line was too long. I never saw a kiosk at a Wal-Mart or Gamestop, or any other store. I really don't shop at Best Buy and was only there by chance, I haven't gone back yet and really don't plan to. I remember PS2 kiosks were everywhere for years when once it came out, why aren't these current consoles as accessible?

[InsaneDavid]

At least with the 3DS kiosks they've put the most current 1st party games on there.

Then barely replenish the stores with actual inventory of featured games.

[Ed Oscuro]

I thought Tanooki might have nailed this one, but I see this:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/435...ng-wii-u-games

What's going on?

[Gameguy]

I thought Tanooki might have nailed this one, but I see this:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/435...ng-wii-u-games

What's going on?

In a way it clears things up. EA doesn't know what it's doing, something people suspected for years is now confirmed.

[Rob2600]

I thought Tanooki might have nailed this one, but I see this:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/435...ng-wii-u-games

What's going on?

In a way it clears things up. EA doesn't know what it's doing, something people suspected for years is now confirmed.

"Electronic Arts is developing games for the Wii U, but not as many as the company is developing for Sony and Microsoft's consoles, EA's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said today during the Stifel Nicolaus 2013 Internet, Media and Communications Conference. Jorgensen's statement seems to contradict a statement last week from EA spokesman Jeff Brown, who said last week that the company has no games in development for the Wii U currently.

'I think what the consumer will find is a lot more powerful gameplay with the new boxes that are coming out, and a lot of excitement, but it'll remain to be seen as to the services associated with those as to how consumers decide which direction they might want to go.'"


EA is confused and confusing. So EA games *are* coming to the Wii U, but not as many as the Xbox One and PS4, unless consumers want them...then they *will* come to the Wii U.

It's interesting how EA's new Wii U announcement comes after Microsoft's Xbox One announcement. Maybe now that all the evil rumors have been confirmed, the Wii U looks good by comparison.

[Bojay1997]

"Electronic Arts is developing games for the Wii U, but not as many as the company is developing for Sony and Microsoft's consoles, EA's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said today during the Stifel Nicolaus 2013 Internet, Media and Communications Conference. Jorgensen's statement seems to contradict a statement last week from EA spokesman Jeff Brown, who said last week that the company has no games in development for the Wii U currently.

'I think what the consumer will find is a lot more powerful gameplay with the new boxes that are coming out, and a lot of excitement, but it'll remain to be seen as to the services associated with those as to how consumers decide which direction they might want to go.'"


EA is confused and confusing. So EA games *are* coming to the Wii U, but not as many as the Xbox One and PS4, unless consumers want them...then they *will* come to the Wii U.

It's interesting how EA's new Wii U announcement comes after Microsoft's Xbox One announcement. Maybe now that all the evil rumors have been confirmed, the Wii U looks good by comparison.

You couldn't be more wrong. To EA and other large publishers, the Xbox One is the most exciting news they have ever had. It essentially projects the same PC licensing model that they love onto the console world. They can soften their position all they want and appear to be consumer friendly, but ultimately it's about money for them and they will go wherever the most can be made with the least amount of effort.