EA Has No Wii U Games In Development, Might In Future

Kotaku just posted an article up about it.

"We have no games in development for the Wii U currently," company spokesperson Jeff Brown told Kotaku yesterday. He did not rule out the chances of EA developing for the Wii U again. EA publishes many of gaming's biggest franchises, including Madden, The Sims, and Battlefield.

Unprecedented partnership? So much for that.

Considering the Wii U has failed to take off, I guess I can understand. It's just weird that out of the big three publishers, EA is the one backing out completely. Ubisoft still has stuff like ACIV, Splinter Cell and Watch_Dogs coming to the Wii U and Activision will still have Call of Duty: Ghosts. The lack of Madden and FIFA is what's going to hurt Nintendo's platform the most.

That being said, for me personally, this doesn't matter since I don't like EA's titles.

I don't want to sound like a Nintendo defender, but pulling out your support now seems weird. Nintendo hasn't released their core titles yet to move consoles. Super Mario U and Mario Kart U could very well push more units in Holiday 2013.

Guys be happy you finally got your Dreamcast 2 but its not from Sega it is from Nintendo.

@haziqonfire: It's all about return on investment. EA would rather develop for platforms with a market of tens of millions than the Wii U's hundreds of thousands.

@colorbrandon said:

They're relying on the PS4/New Xbox as well as the 360/PS3. Just doesn't make much sense to me to exclude the Wii U if some of your titles are going cross-generation anyway. I know EA has said they're trying to focus on platforms that are viable in the long-run, so I guess that excludes the Wii U at the moment.

@haziqonfire: I think EA sees the WiiU as a secondary system. They think consumers are attached to their friends lists and achievement/trophy progress. They're gonna buy multiplatform games on the system with that account because it's their primary system. The only reason not to get something on your primary system is if it's a significantly better version elsewhere. Why make a WiiU version of a game significantly better than the other versions if the consumer is already sold on a different version? Why even make a WiiU version to begin with if the consumer is sold on a different version?

The only reason I haven't thrown my Wii U out the window is Wind Waker, some other Zelda game, and then Bayonetta 2. Honestly that thing has't been touched since day one.

@liquidprince: But there is a screen on the controller! That should make up for everything. Just needs Kinect.

But you can call plays in Madden on the controller!

That seems like a rather large blow to the Wii U, I'm not the biggest EA fan but they are one of the largest publishers in the game industry. Them having no current plans to release games for the Wii U is kinda scary.

Collect all of the dust! In all seriousness EA seems to be a 0% risk company right now so this makes sense, only making things that are a guaranteed success.

Was EA ever successful on Nintendo consoles? Not that I can remember for the Wii at least. Activision and Ubisoft on the other hand both had very good shows on the Wii and makes total sense why they will continue that relationship.

WiiU

more like WiiNoThankU

Could it be Virtual Boy all over again?

@bacongames: My understanding is that Rock Band and Tiger Woods did alright, their fitness games did well and Boom Blox did well enough to get a sequel. None of those are tent pole releases though. They are all small scale, casual audience projects.

Right now nothing sells on the Wii U. New article:

GI.Biz: Wii U's top-charting title selling less than 1000 units [UK]

But EA has pulled out of the Wii U because sales of both hardware and software are dreadful. We're not officially allowed to report sales numbers from Chart Track in the UK but everyone in the publishing business can see them quite clearly. There's no need for pretence. When you can get to number one in the Wii U charts by selling less than 1000 units it's no longer a tragedy, it's an actual farce.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-05-17-nintendo-wii-u-death-by-apathy

So yeah less than 1000 copies is really really really bad.

Surprise?

With the thread about the EA Engineer talking about the Wii U being crap, I'm sort of wondering EA is the only big publisher to back out of Wii U development. I mean he cites that Wii U is worse than a 360 and that third parties cannot make money on Nintendo platforms. As far as I know (I'm not a hardware guy), the Wii U has a slower CPU but is primarily graphics chip based that it might not really matter (I'm not sure about it). The other point about third parties not making money on Nintendo platforms is false. Skylanders, Sonic & All-Star Racing Transformed and Call of Duty have all made money on the Wii U, in some cases more than the other platforms. There's obviously a market for a certain type of third party title on Nintendo platforms, otherwise we wouldn't see partnerships with third parties like we have been so far - Platinum Games, Namco-Bandai, Atlus and SEGA.

On a related note, it's strange that on one hand EA is bailing out while Ubisoft has four core titles coming to the Wii U this year.

Ubisoft reaffirms faith in Wii U:

As with any new console, it takes some time to grow an established base. Ubisoft has a varied and high-quality line-up for Wii U, with more big titles on the way including Rayman Legends, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag and Splinter Cell Blacklist. We're confident that this will help in continuing to attract gamers to the Wii U system and that Nintendo will take steps to ensure that the Wii U is successful in the market.

I wonder if EA will change their tune if the Wii U gains some momentum after the Holiday 2013 season. Super Mario U, Mario Kart U and Wind Waker HD could definitely help move units, though I'm unsure if that'd be enough.

I'm not sure just having more people buy a Wii U would be enough. EA doesn't care at all if people are buying Nintendo games, they only care if people are buying their games. Even if I owned a Wii U I would buy my multiplatform games on 360 or PC now and PC or PS4/New Xbox once they launch. The Wii U just doesn't do anything better than current gen consoles and it will be a joke once the new systems launch. I just can't see many people using a Wii U as their primary console and those who do probably don't buy many 3rd party games. Nintendo somehow got a ton of people to buy into the Wii, but unless they can replicate the same ridiculous success I doubt many 3rd parties will be interested in the Wii U.