EA regrets initially soft Wii support

ha now everyone wants a piece of the wii just cuz its number one! but what about when it first came out?! nooo everyone had to go and make a hundred guzillion games for 360 and ps3!! GO WII :D

maybe if this exec could tell 360 and ps3 owners wii isnt so bad.....

<< LINK REMOVED >> Just so everybody knows, Activision isn't doing much better. Check out the sales of Susaphone Hero, from the URL listed above...

::beating a dead horse:: Damnit, I could care less about graphics. The Big N figured out a way to totally change gaming. While everyone else was going for prettier graphics, and ultimately more horsepower for those graphics, Nintendo went off the wall and it paid off for them. I couldn't be happier for them either. I think my wife is getting me a Wii for Christmas, if she can find one, make a note of the unavailability of them, and I can't wait. Pretty graphics last only a short time before getting boring. EA's got no soul like smoothn00dle said anyway. Their games always feel hollow and simply made to snatch cash outta my wallet. I couldn't really care less about Wii's support from EA. Although a hockey game'd be cool if they could pull that off.

The problem with EA is their games have no soul but only sold. EA ported game wouldn't make it into top 10 Wii chart. They are good at buying developers but not building one. ha ha ha

I think this is a good thing. I have a lot EA Games as my library of games on both my X360 and PC. My first EA title for the Wii would most likely be The Simpsons Game. gnutux

So EA are going to concentrate on the Wii? There go the Wii sales.. Goodbye Wii..you are now corrupted..

PencilPusher- Looks at the entire context of my comments, I followed the "I don't get it" remark with "because they are missing out on so much $" Yea, I do get it, and want to get it, otherwise I wouldn't get it, right? (Horrible sentence structure :) ) I have had to take care of myself for quite sometime and stuggle with the bills just like it seems every American does these days. From an industry standpoint everything makes sense, you need the biggest audience possible and to make the most revenue possible; you have a lot of checks to write! I was more looking at the consumer side and how people react to the development of these games and how they compare to the other consoles. It just that I see the people fluffing up the Wii and then you go to play it and the games are just not the same as they used to be, they just don't stick with you, yet. It just that it takes more than an interactive contoller to immerse me into a game. I have not, and will not say Nintendo can't do this, just that some people act like this controller is the end all be all to games. How you could make any personal judgements about me and my experiences from that, is now what I don't understand...

Keep dreaming. Oh look ma weeeee! I mean wii.

@ l337fool: "You know everyone has kinda glossed over a simple fact. Impressive graphics and strong online support sells games." 100% incorrect on the first point. Impressive graphics has never sold games, in fact. In every single gaming generation since the days of the NES, the console that sold the most units was not the most graphically powerful one. In fact, in every single one of those generations, the most graphically underpowered console was the victor, with the SNES and Dreamcast being the sole exceptions. As for online play, it remains to be seen how important it is. Everyone says it's the most important part, but so-called common wisdom can often have no bearing whatsoever on what people actually buy and why. There isn't really enough data on this subject to say one way or another. "The only thing selling Wii games right now is Nintendo's long running IP's. 3rd parties are going to have a hard time making anything impressive on such low end hardware." "Such low end hardware"? Please. It's more powerful than any of last generation's consoles. I have to laugh when people act as though anything other than the most amazingly state-of-the-art equipment is unworkably outdated. How did you ever survive until this moment with such horrible graphics of the past generations? Given the massive outpouring of stated support for the Wii from major developers, I think I'm going to trust at least a few of them to come up with something good. "Yes gameplay is important but lets be serious flash has been driving this industry for a long time and that isnt gonna change over night. The success of the Wii is really a harbringer of doom." "Harbinger of doom"? Come on. And if gameplay is important, why is the success of the Wii a harbinger of doom? I consider it a message of hope, myself, the hope that perhaps graphics is not, in fact, what people care about most in a game. Nintendo is the only one I see doing anything to make gameplay interesting and unlike anything we've seen before.

Faith in Nintendo FTW. Thats why UBIsoft made a ton of money off of good games like Rabbids and Most of us who had faith in Nintendo got a Wii and arent waiting for the Supply to recoup like some other people who said : and I quote " I will wait till 2007 to get a Wii because I want to see if it will do good"

Well bad for them, good for Ubisoft and others that had faith in the Wii, The wii wont be better in graphics but it will still keep you entertained and admired when ever you play a game in a different way

I think the reason the industry focused the way they did is because many people susupect the Wii is a fad that, ocne games like GTA 4 and RE 5 come out, will wear off. At least, that's the way I look at it.

I notice that they don't mention any games that haven't already been announced. Meaning that there is NOTHING I'm excited about coming from this article. Also, Madden has gotten really, really old.

@ gamer46 rock band is being made by harmonix. DUH

Now if only most EA games didn't suck. Lets see they're making Boogie, Rockband (cheap GH ripoff) and another Madden game that will more than likely suck. Medal of Honor is no longer relevant regardless of what platform it's on and besides, who the hell wants that when there is MP 3? Fifa blows, and NFS is only ok. The only two EA games that I think I'd like to see on the Wii are Fight Night Burnout. Paradise is on the way for PS3 and 360 and looks awesome, a Burnout game on Wii would be downgraded graphically but they could do some cool stuff with motion sensing if they put some effort in to it. Fight Night needs no explanation as to why that would be awesome on Wii.

carrirerj1, the reason people say that is because nearly everyone has a bit of the Wii market, but the ones who have a bit of the PS3 or 360 market too put out more games for them.

1st of all - i am looking fwd to madden wii - as an avid madden fan - things have just been too complicated lately. I hated the flashlight style passing... not to mention they changed all the controls around. Let's not forget tiger woods wii - its going to be fun to swing the wii club. beats pressing a button with little to no interaction. I love these new out of the box gameplay methods. If you don't well there is the ps3 and xbox for you. I wouldn't hurt for some of you to get off your fat a$$ to play video games :)

Very true, however everyone was saying the Wii would not do well. Just goes to show that a lot of gamers just want to have fun and don't care so much about "next gen" graphics.

Hah ha ha ha ah, I bet you regret it EA. EA has to be the worst game developer out there. (My shield of fire_you madden fans). don't get me wrong i buy an ocassional ea PUBLISHED game but I boycott the rest. How do justify puting out games year after year with improvements only in clothing or houses (THE SIMS) and new updated rosters(THE SHIELD OF FLAME_ madden) don't buy ea, they don't care about game quality or you. They don't care if you have fun or not, they only care about MONEY. boycot ea you let one company get away with it then theyll all eventually try to get over on us. HA HAH ha ha HAH. EA SUCKS

Why do people keep saying that the Wii has bad 3rd party support? Haven't they read all of the articles saying that 3rd parties are putting more focus on the Wii. EA isn't the only company doing this. Also, why do people think that Sony is going to be number one? It's like saying that a football team that consistenly performs the worse is going to overtake the team that's consistently performing the best just because they got new shoes. The Great Console Swap is a myth. I will buy a PS3 eventually, but only when they're selling for $150 in stores. That shouldn't take long. At least Blue Ray is doing good. LOL.

"When you've got a competitor like Take-Two on the sports side and they launch a football title using some of the industry legends, you want to make sure that ends up being a blip and is not repeatable, because we like to defend our franchises aggressively," Wow. I smell lawsuit. EA just can't get over someone was smater then them. I love EA's games, but I hate monopolys. I like having a choice in my games. All Pro Football won't hurt Madden's sales, unless they don't improve on the current game.

You know everyone has kinda glossed over a simple fact. Impressive graphics and strong online support sells games (note I said games). The only thing selling Wii games right now is Nintendo's long running IP's. 3rd parties are going to have a hard time making anything impressive on such low end hardware. Yes gameplay is important but lets be serious flash has been driving this industry for a long time and that isnt gonna change over night. The success of the Wii is really a harbringer of doom. That having been said I can't wait till brawl comes out. :)

LuminosityBlaze "I don't get it...Just because the Wii sells well doesn't mean that it is the best system to make games on." That's the difference between a fan who doesn't need to make money to keep a company alive, and somebody who runs a company that has a lot of mouths to feed. You get it, you just don't want to. *OR* You've never had to survive on your own yet.

skirlnik "Say what you want about the Wii, but people are just as uninformed about that system as they are about the two hardcore systems. Anyone who has missed the constant stream of new game announcements for PS3 has been hidden in their WiiHaze. Buy your motion control NFL game - that's fine. I'll enjoy my lengthy, beautiful, deep games and you can play Mario Strikers." I guess that strikes both ways. I'll enjoy Metroid Prime 3, and all of the lengthy games you seem to be ignoring. Congrats!

this was just straight up Wii Racism. What do you guys think?

Say what you want about the Wii, but people are just as uninformed about that system as they are about the two hardcore systems. Anyone who has missed the constant stream of new game announcements for PS3 has been hidden in their WiiHaze. Buy your motion control NFL game - that's fine. I'll enjoy my lengthy, beautiful, deep games and you can play Mario Strikers.

It's kind of funny how many Nintendo fans we're all like "this system will rock" and developers were like "God, It's a piece of crap to make games on" and now they are all like "Oops, I guess it did win after all so far...". EA is at least the second to admit it, so instead of all of them appologizing, make some games, make them right, don't rush them and stop talking and do it already!

I'm glad to hear EA (and many other publishers) will be giving more support to Nintendo. EA wasn't the only company to have little faith in the "Big N." Also, lets remember Nintendo made their share of mistakes too, including a frosty reception towards 3rd Party publishers during the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube days. It's great to see Nintendo re-take the gaming market. All corporations make bad judgement calls... SONY with a $600 gaming machine, Microsoft and it's lack of belief in backwards compatibility. You know a corporation is worthwhile when they *learn* from their mistakes...

EA has learned there lesson, underestimating Nintendo, meanwhile giving the Ps3 a full set of games. EA deserves to be bashed because they bashed the Cube (burnout discontinued on cube, royally given to xbox and PS2) and tryed to bash the Wii, they could of dev'd more games but did not.

people are so quick to bash ea, but this guy's brutally honest and candid. it's very rare that a company gives props to its competitiors and apologizes for not supporting a console. the only thing i take issue with is him chosing ubisoft as the company that keeps him up at night, when technicallay and fiscally, it's part of ea. it probably keeps you up with conference calls and invoices

Who cares what EA thinks.:|

Wow, does all this chatter really matter? The Wii has just as much potential as the Ps3, and were not even past the year mark, so I don't think there's any need to criticize. The future is what's important, so look forward to that instead of rating and bashing games on a new console that just came out.

And here is the problem with the Wii, that was the same porblems with the Gamecube and to a lesser extent, the N64. Third part support. Nintendo has always been a company with big talk, but when push comes to shove, the GBs and DSs, which were the only real options for handhelds until recently, are the only ones to back that talk up. Sure, Nintendo can say "Hey! Look at us! Mario, Link, Samus, and Pikachu!" And surely enough, they can make good first party games when they try. (Key word: try. The endless Mario Party's do not consist of trying) And then the third party company's try to pick off their successful plate by making lackluster games and hopefully will be considered new and innovative. And what does that do? Bring down the quality of the Wii. And unless Nintendo puts their foot down on the quality of games they get, they are going to end up in last place again.

Good comment, agreed.

It's all about the money driven by the size of the install base.

oh, hell to the NO! Sorry, I had't seen your second post when I just made that next one. I take back what I said. I think I will sit back here and call you an idiot after all. Since I guess I didn't figure out anything since you call me an idiot directly now. That ish is quite unneeded espcially when you are putting words into my mouth just for your fodder. You obviously know very little about the game industry. Everyone knows that HD doesn't mean that a game has good graphics, and for you to claim that there are people (like me supposedly) that doesn't know that, actually makes you the idiot. You can put any ol' ish in HD an call it HD but it doen't make it good. I had this same discussion about audio in the Castlevania:SOTN thread. Any crappy audio can be streched to 5.1 and be called surround. Again, doesn't make it good. I always give credit when its due and I am so happy for Nintendo and couldn't be more excited for them. I have been, and will continue to be a strong supporter of every console they have made since the NES to the Wii and beyond, so don't act like you told me something new with your little console war discussion because I have been here for every single one of those you mentioned. The only point I try to make it that technology is shoved down our throats and so much time and money is used to perpetuate it's devolpment. When an entity is part of that movement then all of a sudden takes a step backwards just to say they are being innovative because they have a cheap product is when it starts to get crazy. You get what you pay for. And I do think you get what you pay for with a Wii purchase, as well as a PS3. Its just that a lot of us feel that Nintendo had a opportunity to do truly start a Nintendo "Revolution", but again went to the path of least resistence instead of putting up the real fight to win. I am still pleased with the Wii and it is a step in the right direction for this company heading now into its 3rd century of business. But this now has turned into just another building block for them, rather than the crushing boulder you seem to think it is. Either way I look at it, Its still a little early to claim that Nintendo beat anything at all... including my? insanely pwerful ect. blah. I wish it was mine, but alas it be Sony's. Maybe you can remember all the way back to 1996 when the N64, or to 2001 when the GC , were NOT the weakest systems on the market. Me and a lot of other people just want to know what ever happened to striving for that, thats all...

Shootingpeanuts Good. Ditch the PS3 and stick with the two great systems. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Meh, fanboy. Riccitiello says that they screw up in the aggressive support for 360 and PS3, not ps3 alone. Stop reading the things in the way you like and read them in the real way.

Excellent. Go to the Wii EA, you won't be missed.

Kejigoto: I rant all over these post all the time talking about how the quality of a games is more important than the little extras. No matter what anyone says graphics is directly correlated to quality. A game can have grreat gameplay but if it looks completly like crap and has glitchs and bugs it will not be well-recieved. I think the current situation with Silicon Knights and Epic is a good example. Silcon Knights' game was shunned by critics while Epic's shined due to graphical and technical issues. I believe the point you make is also moot, because the same things can be said of the Wii. Just because I can now swing my controller like a bat or sword and have the game repond to my (kinda) actual movements DOES'T make it a good game, right? Any one who buys a game strictly because of the contoller is an idiot. Now there's a general statement for you. No, I don't buy a game just because of its graphics. I buy it if look like a "Quality" game. And if you don't buy games strictly because of its contoller scheme then the above statement isn't true for you either then. Just watch where you direct those generalizations and then tag IDIOT to the end of it, I'm very good at logic. You said I was an "A". Then you said all "A's" are idiots. Therefore, Me=Idiot, enngh! Wrong. sorry dude... Lastly, I do think that there will be a LOT of people buying MGS4 or GTAIV for some odd reason. Just one being that they are some of the most anticipated games ever perhaps? And you would put the SNES in a 3-way battle with the PSX ans Saturn is beyond me. They were not even the same generations and the N64 would have been more appropriate. No I am not going to sit here and call you an idiot back, so just be cool with that next-time please...

Wow, this will kick some fanboys' pride. Why this happens? Simple: PS3 is NOT selling as many as Wii, neither X360. This is what fanboys can't see, they're just arguing that Wii doesn't have hardware potential and stuff, but they don't see that the money maker is Wii, so developers would turn (and they're are turning) to see Wii as the budget filler. EA: congratulations, I hope Boogie can teach you a lesson.

LuminosityBlaze Ladies and gentlemen, an idiot. Here we have someone is truly only interested in power, because we all know you can't experience a great game without HD 1080p or graphics that make everything look brown... So how is Motorstorm by the way? I'm sure if you are playing your PS3 as much as you say you are you should know the only damn game out for the PS3 inside and out. Just because a console DOESN'T have great graphics or support full on HD TVs (honestly how many of us out there truly have a TV to take full advantage of this?) DOESN'T mean it won't do well. I think the CEO's at Square Enix said it best, the PS3 is over-hyped and over-engineered and things shouldn't be so complicated. How about giving credit where credit is due, Nintendo took a console with a totally new controller system with last gen graphics, went out on a limb to change the market, and crushed the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Neither console can hold a torch to Nintendo's sales or the ideas that are pouring in for games that are in the works for the Wii. When Sony does something right this gen, I'll give them some praise, I give it to Xbox all the time. They got into the market early with their next gen console and got themselves established letting Nintendo and Sony duke it out. Either way you look at it, Nintendo beat your HD 1080p BluRay disk 80 gig hard drive insanely powerful next gen console, with a Gamecube with a better controller.

Good. Ditch the PS3 and stick with the two great systems.

That still doesn't make sense at all... only like a million people in Japan have a PS3, while 4 million people have a Wii. Now games like Mario, Smash Bros. Wii Fit, Brain Age, Wii Sports, and all the other "kid" games out there will certainly sell well (and some of them already have been). The less people who own a console, the less people there will be to buy the games, and something tells me there's a whole lot more people out there willing to buy the above games (and then some) than there is willing to buy MGS4 or GTA IV. Its Quality we are talking about here, just cause a game looks good doesn't mean its better. I could go way back and look at every situation that is similar to this one. NES vs. Sega, Gameboy vs. Gamegear, SNES vs. Playstation/Saturn, DS vs. PSP, and plenty of other things. Graphics don't win console wars, its games and the gameplay involved with those games that do. If you buy a game solely cause it looks good you are an idiot.

I don't get it...Just because the Wii sells well doesn't mean that it is the best system to make games on. Developers are just mad they have missed out on so much potential $, with Wii software sales that they seem to think that sales translates to a harware potential. The 360 and PS3 have WAY MORE potential than the Wii, that is the celing of what can be done on the respective consoles is much higher than the Wii will ever be. My PS3 gets used literally 10times more than my Wii. All my friends that have only a Wii are rather disappointed overall, although of course there are always going to be gems, but most wish they had saved a bit more to foot for the PS3 after playing mine or a demo kiosk. So go ahead and start pumping out a bunch of generic games and out-there ports to the Wii, EA. Just because the consoles sells DOESN'T mean that your games are going to. I have not bought one EA game for the Wii, I'd much rather play Madden or CofD on the 360 or PS3 without having to flail my arms aroung like a madman, and also in HD, the way all modern games are supposed to be. No sorry, 480P doesn't count as HD, especially when the graphics are sub-par to begin with. I dunno, I have to deal with crazy Wii customers at my job that have no idea what they are talking about and way overboard in their descriptions of the console to other potential customers. Then I have correct the damage done with all the misinformation to make sure the customer is not making a decision based on things that are not even true. The Wii is a wonderful system, but they way people are acting about it is starting to get retarded. At this time one word is the best to decribe the Wii: OVERRATED!

more games will still be sold on the ps3 and xbox because the wii has a more mass market base that doesn't buy every game outr there

Stec13 Why is it I can walk into any store right now, and be able to get a PS3 without any trouble at all? Yet if I go out looking for a Wii its gonna be pretty hard to get one? We are nearly 3 months away from the 1 year mark when the Wii launched and they are still extremely hard to find and get ahold of, yet since December anyone can find a PS3 sitting on store shelves. The way I see it is simple, yeah Wii sales are topping out, simply because that's all the available units. Sony has topped out and yet there are 100's of unsold units, stores have even stopped placing orders for PS3's simply because they can't sell what they already have. So where would you rather top out at? Selling 90,000 or less units a month and now no one wants your 80 gig model with beautiful graphics, or selling 250,000+ and every store out there is ordering more and more each month. Heck I've even had abit of trouble finding a DS Lite recently and the DS has been out for what is it? 2 years now nearly? Once again you walk into any store out there, you'll find a PSP with ease. Every Sony fan is saying the same thing "just wait for the games, just wait for the games". That's a good excuse like when the console first comes out, but if you are almost a year into your life span and just barely managed to break 1 million units in Japan opposed to the Wii who has broken 4 million now, that says a whole lot. ESPECIALLY because the Wii has nothing but crap games and ports, why is it this "gimmick" and so called "fad" is still doing well, even when the games are "worse" than the supposed superior PS3 games? 2 consoles, both with crap games, yet one is dominating the market over the other, what is going on here? Grandparents, parents, kids, every day normal people, it doesn't matter who is buying the Wii, it doesn't matter if they buy it just for the multiplayer games like Wii Sports, Wii Play, and soon Wii Fit. The console is selling, the games are selling, the name is out there, everyone is talking about it. Every console sold counts and matters, not just the ones purchased by "hardcore" gamers. Nintendo did something that had never been seen before, they took games to a whole new level and you can tell Sony wanted a piece of the action, just look at the Siaxis controller, after having planned for so long to use a normal controller then right after Nintendo announced and showed off what the Wiimote could do, Sony turns around tries to follow suit seeing just what could happen here. When a big time company like EA steps up and says they are going to push for better support for the Wii, I think that says alot. I'm not a huge EA fan but I do recognize the pull they have and how much they can bring to the table for third party support, and that if a monster like EA is giving the Wii its full support, maybe other great third party developers will be more willing to get behind the Wii and truly take advantage of what the console is capable of. Just take a look at the Godfather and compare it to the other versions, a total blast and true display of how the Wii can change things. Now all we can do is really wait for the Holiday season to come and go then take a look at the numbers then, with Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxies, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl all landing before Christmas and Sony's one major game (GTA IV) appearing on the Xbox...well I'm sure we can all just take a guess at what the Holiday figures will say and who will come out on top. Seems to me this console war isn't about Sony vs. Nintendo anymore, oh no, the true competitor here and the one who presents the biggest threat is Microsoft this time. Sony had their chance, but they fell on their face at the starting line, now its Nintendo vs. Microsoft.

Wii NHL 08 anyone? Hmm? Hmmm?

Well done to EA realising there mistake and correcting it. Props to them, hope they bring in the big guns now that there developing for Nintendo seriously.

If anyone went to vgchartz, most games that pasted the million's mark are on the Nintendo systems. so why would any developers would make games for ps3??? on the ps3, the games cost more to make, the user base are low. every weeks is the same, DS first, Wii second then ps2 , psp ect... so if you are a smart person, its a no brainer. EA games are not i'd like to play but its a smart move. WHY the hell people think that the ps3 gonna be top "one" day... its sinking further and further away (loosing exclusives, developers are switching, less games coming out ect...) MGS4 ain't gonna save the system alone or how long can you play MGS4 for... but it might as well be ported to 360 and Wii...