EA: "We're currently not making any games for the WiiU"

[Guitarmasterx7]

Don't really care. But I suppose if Skate 4 were made & I had a Wii U & Skate 4 was for everything but Wii U & PC, then I'd be disappointed.

Skate 3: Funniest game in the history of forever.

Agreed. Nah but really, many are ringing the bell on nintendo as a console developer. The wiiu has pretty much no unit moving exclusives yet, and I don't know if any EA games would make that kind of difference, but they publish quite a few games so maybe by volume EA would amount to a few killer exclusives. Once there are some things worth playing like a mario and a zelda and a smash bros, maybe the sales will pick up but right now things are looking pretty bleak.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Not really surprising. No publisher likes designing for peripheries that don't have a comparable equivalent on the other consoles. Even going from console to PC isn't so difficult since it's at least just going from a joystick to buttons.

 

[Amir Kondori]

Nothing EA are making these days really appeals to me that much so I don't care. What I want from the Wii U is some big hitting Nintendo games and some good JRPGS.

Whether or not you care about EA games personally, this is a massive hit to the Wii U. EA games are big sellers, particularly the sports games, and not having these is really going to hurt Nintendo.

I think this could be yet another sign Nintendo is going the way of Sega. Personally, I don't really have a problem if they make games for other consoles because it will give me access to the few Nintendo franchises I love without having to buy a console I otherwise don't want.

That said, I'd be really sad if Nintendo went under. The first few consoles I owned were made by Nintendo, and to see what I still consider my favourite gaming company lose their position as a major player would just be bizarre to me.

I'm quite sure Nintendo will manage to make more money than either Sony or Microsoft this go, even if they only manage to put out first party titles. Their business model is more sound, even if the customers aren't big fans.

How does that work exactly. The Wii was an anomaly and all signs point to the WiiU NOT being a repeat.

Profit isn't just a matter of units shipped, but also profit margins. This is even more true with consoles, consoles cost the manufacturer more money than they cost the consumer. The WiiU is on a very slight loss, and is already bringing Nintendo money thanks to only needing one game sale per customer to make a profit. In comparison, I expect the PS4 and Durango to be in the red for 2-3 years, then spend years more making back the losses of the initial launch (based on previous steep subsidies, and that I can't see any way for them to fix the hole they dug for themselves by making gamers expect to pay far less than the system is worth).

Except it has already been reported the both the next xbox and PS4 are using much more standard off the shelf components, basically just x86 APU's from AMD, and that AMD is highly motivated to provide at a competitive price due to their financial situation, the net effect being that these next gen consoles will be cheaper for Sony and Microsoft to make than ever.

More importantly Nintendo isn't even selling many units. It does not matter if Nintendo is only taking a small loss on the hardware if they don't sell any. The reason almost no one is developing or releasing WiiU titles is because of those low sales numbers. Even Nintendo can't make from its in house games if there aren't a good number of people with WiiU's to buy their games.

The WiiU might just be Nintendo's Dreamcast.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The Wii U is a very different console that, just like its predecessor, will likely skew developer interest. In a growing world of ports, having a console that is way less powerful and has a quirky controller, won't inspire much trust in developers to put their games on that system, unless they're making them exclussive.

And with that I'm sure we'll see history repeating. Maybe not in terms of sales, but with a handful of third party developers making a certain amount of exclusives for the system, and the rest of the big multiplatform titles going to the PS4, Xbox, and PC.

 

[jetriot]

The Playstation/Xbox/PC seem like they will be pretty easy to port between each other. The WiiU simply requires too much extra development time for not enough payoff. Even the Wii had a difficult time selling 3rd party 'gamer' games because they were they were downscaled and subpar in every way to the other consoles. This time the WiiU doesn't have the hardware numbers to justify what would be even worse 3rd party sales than before.

Will Nintendo be fine with just their software lineup? Maybe, they haven't shown that they are ready to make the 1st party software push on the WiiU that they will need to succeed. Honestly, I think it is time for a massive restructuring at Nintendo. The profit potential is there but the bad decisions keep piling up.

 

[capper42]

Whether or not you care about EA games personally, this is a massive hit to the Wii U. EA games are big sellers, particularly the sports games, and not having these is really going to hurt Nintendo.

I think this could be yet another sign Nintendo is going the way of Sega.

Stopped reading here. Nintendo has currently got more money than God, and an incredibly successful handheld. If you think that makes them comparable to Sega, then you need to read up on your gaming history.

I will admit I don't know a huge amount about the economic history of the different games companies. I just know Nintendo have shot themselves in the foot with the Wii U, largely due to a complete lack of marketing. No one I know who isn't hugely into games has any idea what the Wii U is. My girlfriend a few weeks ago saw a Wii U in a shop, and had genuinely never heard of it before.

Whilst the 3DS and the amount of money Nintendo earned from the Wii might keep them afloat, it's still a pretty massive hit if no one is buying the Wii U. Now publishers and developers are jumping ship, it seems the Wii U is stalling. I'm not expecting the company to disappear overnight, I was just saying it COULD be the beginning of the end (at least for them continuing to make consoles), which is a shame, because I love Nintendo.

Edit: I wrote countries instead of companies in the first sentence, I have my history essay writing head on.

 

[Requia]

Nothing EA are making these days really appeals to me that much so I don't care. What I want from the Wii U is some big hitting Nintendo games and some good JRPGS.

Whether or not you care about EA games personally, this is a massive hit to the Wii U. EA games are big sellers, particularly the sports games, and not having these is really going to hurt Nintendo.

I think this could be yet another sign Nintendo is going the way of Sega. Personally, I don't really have a problem if they make games for other consoles because it will give me access to the few Nintendo franchises I love without having to buy a console I otherwise don't want.

That said, I'd be really sad if Nintendo went under. The first few consoles I owned were made by Nintendo, and to see what I still consider my favourite gaming company lose their position as a major player would just be bizarre to me.

I'm quite sure Nintendo will manage to make more money than either Sony or Microsoft this go, even if they only manage to put out first party titles. Their business model is more sound, even if the customers aren't big fans.

How does that work exactly. The Wii was an anomaly and all signs point to the WiiU NOT being a repeat.

Profit isn't just a matter of units shipped, but also profit margins. This is even more true with consoles, consoles cost the manufacturer more money than they cost the consumer. The WiiU is on a very slight loss, and is already bringing Nintendo money thanks to only needing one game sale per customer to make a profit. In comparison, I expect the PS4 and Durango to be in the red for 2-3 years, then spend years more making back the losses of the initial launch (based on previous steep subsidies, and that I can't see any way for them to fix the hole they dug for themselves by making gamers expect to pay far less than the system is worth).

Except it has already been reported the both the next xbox and PS4 are using much more standard off the shelf components, basically just x86 APU's from AMD, and that AMD is highly motivated to provide at a competitive price due to their financial situation, the net effect being that these next gen consoles will be cheaper for Sony and Microsoft to make than ever.

More importantly Nintendo isn't even selling many units. It does not matter if Nintendo is only taking a small loss on the hardware if they don't sell any. The reason almost no one is developing or releasing WiiU titles is because of those low sales numbers. Even Nintendo can't make from its in house games if there aren't a good number of people with WiiU's to buy their games.

The WiiU might just be Nintendo's Dreamcast.

How the fuck is off the shelf cheaper? Not that it matters, they still need (and have) substantially more power than the WiiU in order to actually upsell what they already sell, that means more expensive hardware.

And the WiiU sales are not nearly as bad as you make out. They're about 30% below projected sales, if things *don't* get better that still means 6 million sales by the end of the year (keep in mind spring sales traditionally suck, if not this bad).

 

[Colt47]

Well, in the end EA is suffering still from a bad public image on top of the current recession. Nintendo is mostly just dealing with the recession, thankfully, and the Wii U isn't anywhere near the shape the Dreamcast was in when it hit. Sega was already limping when the Dreamcast got released and they were hoping that the dreamcast would be able to bring them back into the green. Nintendo still has the Wii safety net along with lots of home built titles, and are fairly self reliant. Plus this isn't the first time they've launched a console with less then stellar sales. It seems no one remembers the Virtual Boy these days...

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm quite sure Nintendo will manage to make more money than either Sony or Microsoft this go, even if they only manage to put out first party titles. Their business model is more sound, even if the customers aren't big fans.

Except they were taking losses on the 3DS before the price cut and they're taking a bath on the Wii U.

Their business model is "more sound" only in a folk wisdom sense.

 

[Something Amyss]

If they can make it through the last financial year, with a console launch, slow sales and a 3DS line-up only really kicking off at the end of the financial year, and still make a profit (even if down to changes in the Yen), then that is one hell of a business model.

No, it's really not. And saying "Sony's doing worse" doesn't make it any more true.

 

[Terramax]

So, for the entirety of 2013, there will be no games from EA for the Nintendo Console. What are your thoughts on this?

Why would they deliver games for a console that has shipped relatively few units that also shares a remarkably different feature set from both current competition and soon to be released consoles? It generally seems to be a sound business strategy given that EA focuses on delivering games at the very expensive (the Battlefields for example) and the very cheap (their myriad social games). Without a focus on that middle of the road experience, putting resources behind a device that isn't doing well is silly when the same resources could go to platforms where EA has consistently performed well.

This would be my view also.

Notice how EA aren't putting much effort onto the Vita either (although I hear they did a good job of the NFS: Wanted port, and they're at least releasing the FIFA games on there).

The year when a whole bunch of new consoles hit the scene is a point of uncertainty for all business, but especially the larger companies. Suddenly, the gaming community is divided into double the number of home consoles. No longer is it a simple '360 has 35%, PS3 has 35%, Wii has 30%, we can calculate accordinglyl (those percentages completely made up)', with the PS4, Nexbox and Wii U on the scene, 3DS and Vita still not quite sure-fire hits either, it's going to be hard for EA to tell who's buying for what console.

EDIT:

Oh, and another thing, regarding comments from some among the lines of 'EA have the Star Wars license, Disney are going to be pissed this means no Star Wars games for the Wii U, EA are shooting themselves in the foot', has it not occurred that, during negotiations for the Star Wars license, EA discussed their plans for the franchise with Disney, including what consoles they plan to make Star Wars games for?

I mean, I could be wrong here, but I'm gathering that they probably did.

 

[VanQ]

Snip.

Well, we know that EA have the rights to the new Star Wars games now and they aren't developing for the WiiU right now but do we know if those Star Wars games are currently in development?

I thought EA only just got their foot in the Star Wars door, it could very well be that they start developing soon for all platforms including WiiU. I don't think it's worth getting worked up over it until we know their stance on that matter.

 

[kamay]

This is a pretty big blow to the WiiU as of right now. Hate EA as much as you want but they are one of the biggest publishers in the business atm. I wonder if this is more due to the glacier pace the system has been selling or the fact the frostbite engine wasn't working on the WiiU?