EA stops making games for Wii U

[ashita]

Wasn't sure whether this really belonged in the News forum or not so posted it here as it fitted Video Games
BBC News - EA stops making games for Nintendo Wii U

If this turns out to be true then it will be bad news for Nintendo, i mean the U has barely really got going and this is has happened.

P.S If a mod feels this belongs better elsewhere then please move it

 

[dig]

That's quite a blow to Nintendo, seems like they just can't market the Wii U. The original Wii is still outselling Wii U's, I guess there really is only a small market who want a Wii U.

 

[Mokoniki]

I'm not surprised, seeing as the Wii U is not selling as well as expected. I've seen many people who have said they won't be buying a Wii U until something interesting comes out for it. Myself being one of those people. But with recent confirmation that a new Sonic game is in the works for the Wii U, perhaps things will be looking up.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

As much as people say this will hurt Nintendo, I actually think this move will hurt EA more than it will hurt Nintendo, and for various reasons. One of the many reasons is primarily because of all the bad things that EA has done to the video game industry, such as the controversies involving their Origin gaming system, their overblown marketing on certain games, the abuse of Day-one DLC, the fact that they blackmailed Microsoft into letting them run their own servers and account system (other than Xbox Live) on 360, the list goes on. This will only lower EA's sales even more, and while Nintendo will face the punishment, EA will be hit harder in this case.

The real reason about why EA stopped making games for the Wii U, from what I've heard, is because EA wanted Nintendo to use EA's Origin gaming service (and give EA complete control over it) in place of Nintendo's own marketplace and online infrastructure, to which Nintendo responded "no" because they wanted to have their own online service to appeal to all gaming companies and not strictly EA alone, and EA decided to pull all it's planned Wii U games as a result. No platform holder would let another storefront supplant their own.

And contrary to popular belief, but as much as the Wii U isn't selling as much as the original Wii isn't the first time this has happened, the PS3 launch a few years earlier was a similar case, in the fact that the PS2 was still selling well, so history is essentially repeating itself. On the upside though, the 3DS is doing really well, and I'm pretty sure games like Animal Crossing and the upcoming Pokemon X/Y, to say nothing of A Link to the Past 2, will have no problem moving units of the already very, very successful device.

This doesn't strictly mean the Wii U will rebound and bring major sales eventually, Nintendo has a habit of striking upon gold during the lean years. For instance, when the Nintendo 64 was struggling, the Pokemon franchise, then in the first generation, spawned a cultural phenomenon on a global scale, in fact, Pokemon could be considered one of the greatest examples of a legitimate system seller, there are countless people who will hold off on Nintendo's newest handheld system until it gets its first legit Pokemon game. The Wii U isn't setting the world alight, but it hasn't been out very long, once they come up with something truly worth playing, then you'll probably see a different story.

Also, keep in mind that Sega was trying to dig themselves out of a hole with the Dreamcast, while Nintendo had years and years of profit built up.

In the end, this is more or less EA's loss rather than Nintendo's loss.

 

[Kelleo]

Also guys, keep in mind that the Wii U has only been out since November. The 3DS went through a similar phase and now look how well it's doing. The Wii U will shine eventually. Especially since we have titles like Smash Bros. 4, new 3D Mario, new 3D Zelda, Mario Kart Wii U, and more coming up.

EA is just being immature about this. I bet they're going to regret pulling their Wii U titles later when this decision comes back and shoots them in the foot.

 

[H-con]

Also, keep in mind that Sega was trying to dig themselves out of a hole with the Dreamcast, while Nintendo had years and years of profit built up.

Quite ironic with Nintendo's recent partnership with Sega though.



To be fair though, who picks up a Wii U and buys a bunch of EA games for it anyways? Don't think this is going to affect a lot of sales, both for Nintendo or EA to be honest. Not that Nintendo have gone to great lengths to attract third party devs though.

I'm not buying any home console anyways, but I certainly don't want the Wii U to fail. A healthy competition is good for the market and especially the consumer, and games on the Wii U can affect the possibilities of games on platforms I use, so the more, the better. And Nintendo is doing very well with the 3DS right now.

 

[Crystal Onix]

And I was looking forward to EA bringing Sim City 2013/ Need for Speed to the Wii U. Needless to say, I won't be buying SC'13 for the PC with it requiring a persistent connection which I just don't have these days, but I was hoping they'd fix that for a Wii U version. It's going to be Nintendo that gets my money in the near future, not EA.

 

[Nero the Giant Whiscash]

No offense to Nintendo Fans every where and I also love Nintendo to death but this IS NOT SURPRISING AT ALL because Nintendo screwed up badly with the Wii U because its over priced and under powered because its CPU is even weaker then the 360s (wii u is a single threaded 1.4 Ghz tricore core chip compared to a 2 threaded 3.2 ghz tri core chip on the 360 so it has less then HALF the power of the power of it) for the price and more and more companies are canceling there Wii U games because of this and jumping to the massively powered PS4 and the Xbox ONE (it was announced today)

 

[dig]

No offense to Nintendo Fans every where and I also love Nintendo to death but this IS NOT SURPRISING AT ALL because Nintendo screwed up badly with the Wii U because its over priced and under powered because its CPU is even weaker then the 360s (wii u is a single threaded 1.4 Ghz tricore core chip compared to a 2 threaded 3.2 ghz tri core chip on the 360 so it has less then HALF the power of the power of it) for the price and more and more companies are canceling there Wii U games because of this and jumping to the massively powered PS4 and the Xbox ONE (it was announced today)

Which other companies have announced that they are no longer producing games for the Wii U?

 

[Nero the Giant Whiscash]

No offense to Nintendo Fans every where and I also love Nintendo to death but this IS NOT SURPRISING AT ALL because Nintendo screwed up badly with the Wii U because its over priced and under powered because its CPU is even weaker then the 360s (wii u is a single threaded 1.4 Ghz tricore core chip compared to a 2 threaded 3.2 ghz tri core chip on the 360 so it has less then HALF the power of the power of it) for the price and more and more companies are canceling there Wii U games because of this and jumping to the massively powered PS4 and the Xbox ONE (it was announced today)

Which other companies have announced that they are no longer producing games for the Wii U?

`
I should rephrase that a tad bit cancelled or been put on hold( there is like 5 to now in NA but more across the world in other regions including Ghost Recon Online Wii U) but the games that have been cancelled for NA(there are more from different regions that i have heard about but do not know the names of.) are Aliens: Colonial Marines by SEGA, Cysis 3 by Crytek and Metro: Last Light developed by 4A games and published by DEEP SILVER

The main reason EA canned 15 upcoming title for the Wii is because of the reason i listed above and a result there frostbite 3 engine is none compatible.

 

[Jolene]

Poor EA. They will be bawlling when the Wii U is mega sucessful after the heavyweight titles are out.

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

I should rephrase that a tad bit cancelled or been put on hold( there is like 5 to now in NA but more across the world in other regions including Ghost Recon Online Wii U) but the games that have been cancelled for NA(there are more from different regions that i have heard about but do not know the names of.) are Aliens: Colonial Marines by SEGA, Cysis 3 by Crytek and Metro: Last Light developed by 4A games and published by DEEP SILVER

The main reason EA canned 15 upcoming title for the Wii is because of the reason i listed above and a result there frostbite 3 engine is none compatible.

The cancellation of Aliens: Colonial Marines is hardly a loss for Wii U, considering how badly received it was, plus the fact that there was a case of false advertisements, with the trailers being completely different from the actual product. Crysis 3 and Metro, however, are a shame they weren't released, but remember that Crysis 3 is published by EA, so they might have a role in that. And also, development of Metro: Last Light for the Wii U never began to begin with. Also, try read Robo-Floatzel's post above about this matter it's quite informative.

 

[Nero the Giant Whiscash]

Poor EA. They will be bawlling when the Wii U is mega sucessful after the heavyweight titles are out.

Even with Zelda and Mario (which are rehashes with some improvements) won't save it unless it has a price drop on the 32 GB version to 199.99 USD (its 349.99 now) MINIMUM when both the "TRUE" next gen (XBOX ONE and PS4) are going to be coming out later this year at around the same price between 300 to 400 dollars mostly likely or near 500 on the high end.

I should rephrase that a tad bit cancelled or been put on hold( there is like 5 to now in NA but more across the world in other regions including Ghost Recon Online Wii U) but the games that have been cancelled for NA(there are more from different regions that i have heard about but do not know the names of.) are Aliens: Colonial Marines by SEGA, Cysis 3 by Crytek and Metro: Last Light developed by 4A games and published by DEEP SILVER

The main reason EA canned 15 upcoming title for the Wii is because of the reason i listed above and a result there frostbite 3 engine is none compatible.

The cancellation of Aliens: Colonial Marines is hardly a loss for Wii U, considering how badly received it was, plus the fact that there was a case of false advertisements, with the trailers being completely different from the actual product. Crysis 3 and Metro, however, are a shame they weren't released, but remember that Crysis 3 is published by EA, so they might have a role in that. And also, development of Metro: Last Light for the Wii U never began to begin with. Also, try read Robo-Floatzel's post above about this matter it's quite informative.

And robo floatzel is wrong about EA not developing games because of origin is because of the reason i said above just GOOGLE IT .

 

[Big Lutz]

Personally I see this as a bad move for EA. The gamepad for the Wii U is perfect for innovative sports games! Imagine having a two player mode, where one person plays as the main QB/Passer/Runner while the person with the game pad plays as the coach, directing the plays. The same could go with their FIFA series, using the game pad to direct the AI players around the field using the touch screen. In the latest Call of Duty, they had a RTS mode, they could expand that just for the Wii U, where you go in and out of the battle, using the game pad to direct units.

EA really could have taken advantage of this technology for their sports franchises, but instead it seems they prefer to churn out game after game each year where the innovation is basically "Look at the tackle physics"

 

[Kelleo]

Even with Zelda and Mario (which are rehashes with some improvements)

Whoa, stop right there. First of all, Zelda hasn't even reached the Wii U yet. Second, the recent 3D Mario games have NOT been rehashes. Super Mario Galaxy and SMG2 are nothing like Super Mario Sunshine or the NSMB series. I'll give you that NSMBU is more or less a "rehash" of NSMBWii, but I'm not saying it or NSLU will automatically make the Wii U a hot seller either. Third, the recent Zeldas haven't been rehashes either aside from OoT, which is 3DS. Skyward Sword is NOTHING like the Zelda titles that came before it, nor was Spirit Tracks.

I'm confident that the upcoming Zelda Wii U, 3D Mario for Wii U, Smash Bros. 4, and more will help up the Wii U's sales.

Also, did I mention that the 3DS started selling like crazy even though it also has yet to get a brand new Zelda? Nintendo knows what they're doing.

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

And robo floatzel is wrong about EA not developing games because of origin is because of the reason i said above just GOOGLE IT .

Then do enlighten me, how come EA pulled back its support for the Wii U, when they beforehand showed extreme support for it during E3 2 years ago? The E3 after that, there were barely any mention of the Wii U at EA's conference. You can't deny that EA showed at one point so much support before almost denying that. And by the way, I never said that Robo-Floatzel's post was right, only informative (hope you don't take any offense to that Robo).

 

[H-con]

Then do enlighten me, how come EA pulled back its support for the Wii U, when they beforehand showed extreme support for it during E3 2 years ago? The E3 after that, there were barely any mention of the Wii U at EA's conference. You can't deny that EA showed at one point so much support before almost denying that. And by the way, I never said that Robo-Floatzel's post was right, only informative (hope you don't take any offense to that Robo).

Well, their partnership with Microsoft could very well be one of the biggest reasons to EA dropping the Wii U. I laughed audibly when I was watching the stream and heard that they had made that partnership. It's like the perfect match for a company as crap as EA.

"TRUE" next gen (XBOX ONE and PS4) are going to be coming out later this year at around the same price between 300 to 400 dollars mostly likely or near 500 on the high end.

And what of it? Microsoft is intent on creating some media center thing and forcing Kinect like it's the saviour of ... everything, and I don't think that's going to fly well for a lot of people. Sony ... I don't know what to make of Sony yet, I'll have to wait for E3. I wasn't terribly impressed with the PS4 though. As long as we don't get another 599$, they can be ... okay.

I guess a price drop on the Wii U is coming, after how they saw it really boosted 3DS sales. It wouldn't be fun to admit for Nintendo though, but it's necessary. A price drop, new Smash, new Mario Kart and we might see some action in Wii U sales.

And honestly, do you really think most people who bought the Wii cared about "true" next gen?

under powered because its CPU is even weaker then the 360s (wii u is a single threaded 1.4 Ghz tricore core chip compared to a 2 threaded 3.2 ghz tri core chip on the 360 so it has less then HALF the power of the power of it

[citation needed]

Throwing around random numbers only weakens your argument. Advancements in architecture can make even lower clocked processors better than previous, higher clocked ones.

massively powered PS4 and Xbox ONE

[citation needed]

They're saying that's it's massively powered (I mean, blast processing from Sony, photons and rocket science from Microsoft). I'll rather wait until I see it for myself.

I saw the pre-rendered sport games thingy from EA, and it looked like shit to be honest. I mean, they pretty much say "here's Forza playing on a Xbox One", and it's pre-rendered?

I'm positive to x86 architecture and increased memory though. Unlike the clusterfuck that was the Cell (and it's magical power, supposedly) and the general lack of memory, development and porting games can probably be made easier, which is a plus.

 

[CrackFox]

Interesting. I don't own a Wii U. I have a regular Wii. I've heard a lot of negative comments about the Wii U. I think Nintendo have flopped. It just seems relentless, another shiny new box thing that will eventually be released in every colour. Add a few expensive Mario games that have graphics much below the standard of any other console on the market today, and you have another success. I mean, in the days of PS4 and Xbox 1, surely Nintendo have to up their game a bit. The Wii U doesn't even come close.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

No offense to Nintendo Fans every where and I also love Nintendo to death but this IS NOT SURPRISING AT ALL because Nintendo screwed up badly with the Wii U because its over priced and under powered because its CPU is even weaker then the 360s (wii u is a single threaded 1.4 Ghz tricore core chip compared to a 2 threaded 3.2 ghz tri core chip on the 360 so it has less then HALF the power of the power of it) for the price and more and more companies are canceling there Wii U games because of this and jumping to the massively powered PS4 and the Xbox ONE (it was announced today)

Poor EA. They will be bawlling when the Wii U is mega sucessful after the heavyweight titles are out.

Even with Zelda and Mario (which are rehashes with some improvements) won't save it unless it has a price drop on the 32 GB version to 199.99 USD (its 349.99 now) MINIMUM when both the "TRUE" next gen (XBOX ONE and PS4) are going to be coming out later this year at around the same price between 300 to 400 dollars mostly likely or near 500 on the high end.

Whenever I read your comments on this thread SHINY HEATRAN, all I see is a butthurt "hardcore gamer" who, in this post, claims he loves Nintendo, but then contradicts himself by complaining that it's overpriced and allegedly has a far weaker CPU (where are you getting your estimates on this, cause I'm pretty sure you're just throwing around random numbers), and then calling the PS4 and Xbox ONE "massively powered" and "the TRUE next gen" makes me not only ask where you are getting your information on this (especially since those two systems aren't even out yet), but the fact that you start bashing on Nintendo and supporting Sony and Microsoft shows me that you are simply contradicting what you said at first: You support Nintendo by saying you love it to death, then start bashing on it with claims that have no real citation to them. Besides, wasn't the PS3 no different when it was first released?

Another thing, there haven't been any Zelda games announced for the Wii U yet (there's one for the 3DS coming out though), and not every new Zelda and Mario game is simply a "rehash". Not to mention you say these things despite the controversies that the Xbox ONE has caused recently among the gaming community, but that is another topic.

I should rephrase that a tad bit cancelled or been put on hold( there is like 5 to now in NA but more across the world in other regions including Ghost Recon Online Wii U) but the games that have been cancelled for NA(there are more from different regions that i have heard about but do not know the names of.) are Aliens: Colonial Marines by SEGA, Cysis 3 by Crytek and Metro: Last Light developed by 4A games and published by DEEP SILVER

The main reason EA canned 15 upcoming title for the Wii is because of the reason i listed above and a result there frostbite 3 engine is none compatible.

The cancellation of Aliens: Colonial Marines is hardly a loss for Wii U, considering how badly received it was, plus the fact that there was a case of false advertisements, with the trailers being completely different from the actual product. Crysis 3 and Metro, however, are a shame they weren't released, but remember that Crysis 3 is published by EA, so they might have a role in that. And also, development of Metro: Last Light for the Wii U never began to begin with. Also, try read Robo-Floatzel's post above about this matter it's quite informative.

Given what Tophat Dragoneye says, the cancellation of a few games won't really hurt a systems success or failure, but then there's the fact that SHINY HEATRAN points out the alleged cancellation of a Wii U port of Metro: Last Light that never even existed in the first place. Need I point out the whole "citation needed" thing again?

And robo floatzel is wrong about EA not developing games because of origin is because of the reason i said above just GOOGLE IT .

Calling me wrong because what I said earlier in the thread contradicts what you believe only shows me how biased you are. You probably never even read my post about the situation, did you?

Then do enlighten me, how come EA pulled back its support for the Wii U, when they beforehand showed extreme support for it during E3 2 years ago? The E3 after that, there were barely any mention of the Wii U at EA's conference. You can't deny that EA showed at one point so much support before almost denying that. And by the way, I never said that Robo-Floatzel's post was right, only informative (hope you don't take any offense to that Robo).

No offense taken, and thanks for pointing out something I forgot on my post earlier this thread, being the fact that EA showed a lot of support for the Wii U when it was first announced, and then completely changing their stance towards the system a year later, which lead to them completely stop making games for the Wii U, along with the fact that EA wanted to have Nintendo use their Origin service and let Nintendo give free reign of their online services to EA caused Nintendo to back out of the deal.

 

[Joshawott]

As @Robo-Floatzel; noted, EA having something against Nintendo goes right back to when Nintendo were designing the Wii U. One of the companies who they consulted with about the online of Wii U was EA. In discussions, EA put forward to Nintendo that the company should use Origin as the console's main server. Nintendo said no, on the basis of EA possibly giving their games great servers, but competitor's games, less than great servers.

In regards to game sales, how are EA actually surprised that no one is buying their rubbish? For example:
Mass Effect 3: Special Edition was a launch title for Wii U. However, a month earlier, the entire trilogy was rereleased in one package, for the same price, on PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.
FIFA 13's sales are the main reason why FIFA 14 isn't coming to the Wii U. Except that the Wii U version of FIFA 13 was just the PS360 version of FIFA 12, with squad and kit updates.
EA thinks consumers are stupid, when we're not.
And honestly? I don't think losing EA will hit Nintendo. EA tend to release their games as multi-platform anyway. The Wii U getting FIFA or Madden wasn't going to bring in console sales. However, the worldwide Sonic 3-game exclusive agreement with SEGA? That is something that definitely far outweighs losing the twice voted worst company in America.

To be honest, I can actually see this generation being the one where Nintendo makes up for the Wii and wins the gamers back. Why? Because in this generation, it feels like Nintendo is the only one of the big three video game companies who is actually focusing on the games. Not to mention, while the PlayStation 4 and XBox One are going to be a lot more powerful than the Wii U, the leap between generations doesn't feel as big as it was between the last one and the gap between Nintendo's consoles and Sony and Microsoft's simply doesn't feel as big. When Sony have to focus on the detail of an old man's face and Microsoft have to go on about how we can see arm hair and dirt under nails, then are the gameplay experiences really going to be that drastic? We already have games like Call of Duty: Ghosts and Watch_Dogs coming out for both PlayStation 3/XBox 360 and PlayStation 4/XBox One - as well as Wii U (well, Call of Duty has yet to be confirmed, but is strongly rumoured).

Honestly, Ubisoft are my favourite third party developer at the moment, because they're giving the Wii U all the support they can - with the exclusive Zombi U, as well as giving us titles like Watch_Dogs and Assassin's Creed IV. Sure, the Rayman Legends thing was very rough, but the Challenges app has more than made up for it. I think it's because Ubisoft also see the potential of the Wii U.