"The Wii U is crap" "awful console" "Nintendo are walking dead"

[Eri]

At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as "crap" and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether.

"The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet," tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. "Nintendo are walking dead at this point."

Though the tweets, made early yesterday morning, have since been deleted, screenshots of them mushroomed across multiple sites, most prominently on NeoGAF.

Summerwill didn't let up after that first tweet. "Nintendo are still operating like it's 1990," he goes on, saying it should have gotten out of the hardware business and made its Mario and Legend of Zelda franchises exclusives on either the PlayStation 4 or next Xbox.

"Instead, they make this awful console," he added. Then, of EA's withdrawal from developing for Wii U, he said, "It is an utterly intentional decision to focus our resources on markets which actually matter."

http://kotaku.com/ea-sports-developer-calls-wii-u-crap-and-nintendo-wa-508481261

Hard to say I disagree. However, dead they are not. Even if in the end the U is a massive failure, they have enough money it doesn't matter. I wish they'd just make software for other consoles or PC though.

Harvest Moon on PC? Yes please.

 

[Daft Time]

EA really needs to shut the fuck up this point.Atleast Nintendo does'nt have two Golden Poo awards to their name.

To be fair, this was an EA employee rather than the company itself which made the comments in question - apart from confirming they weren't going to develop for the console.

Hard to say I disagree. However, dead they are not. Even if in the end the U is a massive failure, they have enough money it doesn't matter. I wish they'd just make software for other consoles or PC though.

Though the tweets were hardly elegant, he is correct in his evaluation of the state of Nintendo's hardware. Personally, I couldn't careless about Nintendo at the point. They haven't made a console worth anything since the 64 nor have they done anything other than churn out the same games year after year. They are not a bad company, just a boring one.

Also; they aren't losing anything of significant quality by not having EA develop titles for the Wii U. Speaking of churning out the same titles year after year...

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Kotaku trying to get the guy fired?

There's no news here other than that a guy who maybe worked for EA might have had the nerve to have an opinion like-a-normal-person-would instead of walking on egg-shells like a politician would. Which is outrageous in the gaming industry now for some reason.

They're trying to create bullshit controversy so that you'll click on their bullshit and increase their ad-revenue. They're trolling for a living, don't pay them any mind.

 

[Zhukov]

Duty calls Jeffers. Into the breach once more!

...

Y'know, despite not having or particularly wanting anything to do with the WiiU, I'm not convinced that it's doing as badly as some people seem to think. Obviously it's not exploding like the Wii did, but that was something of an exception. Is it doing any worse than the 360 or PS3 did at the same stage?

 

[Hades]

I really hope the guy doesn't get fired, and this is coming from a hardcore nintendo fan! Yes, the guy comes off as a jerk but i don't think he has to lose his job because of it. I do think EA would be wise to keep him from twitter though.

The Wii U's position is...troublesome. Even the most loyal Nintendo fans can't deny there is no reason to own the thing at the moment but i have faith Nintendo will pull through. As soon as their Mario's and Zelda's will be revealed and they will release games of the quality Nintendo is known for they will always sell enough to survive. Nintendo is the only company that can support a console on their own if need be and for that they have my respect.

 

[ThePuzzldPirate]

I wonder what EA(and their employees) are going to say down the road when not putting games on the Wii-U turns to be more of a financial risk. I guess they will butter up when they get there. All Nintendo is missing is relevancy and I believe that will kick in when Nintendo either gets around to releasing their own games or everyone finds out how much it costs to actually make use of PS4/X-box(That is if it matches,) hardware.

 

[Mr. Omega]

I do think the WiiU is in a bad spot in terms of sales. I even think it's likely Nintendo will have a repeat of the Gamecube generation (makes them money, but still in 3rd, made less damaging because of strong handheld sales).

However, I doubt the PS4 or NextBox are going to do much better. Maybe a little better, but they aren't going to crush the WiiU. This generation might be a little more difficult for consoles. And no matter how much more powerful the other systems might be, unless by some miracle they go beyond what even the highest high-end gaming PC can go for, there isn't a gap anywhere as big as the Wii's lack of HD was.

As for this guy's actual comments: he sounds mad. I think he mad. Funny how so many of the worst comments about the WiiU seem to come from people connected to EA. I wouldn't exactly take the advice of an EA Sports dev as sage wisdom. Hell, EA Sports has the least right to complain about the WiiU, considering the version of FIFA they put out on it.

"They should have gotten out of the console business" Yeah, saying that over and over doesn't make it true. Also like how EA is pretty much pulling out purely to stick it to Nintendo. As if it wasn't obvious already.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

EA said something nasty about Nintendo?

Did you ever stop to think it might have something to do with Nintendo rejecting EA's offer to make the WiiU store be origin powered?

http://wiiudaily.com/2012/08/ea-origin-wii-u/

Anyway taking into account the amount of money Nintendo has been pulling in from 3DS hardware and software sales calling them "walking dead" is hardly accurate.

Also Harvest Moon on PC? You do realize that franchise isn't even published by Nintendo right?

 

[GeneralFungi]

EA said something nasty about Nintendo?

Did you ever stop to think it might have something to do with Nintendo rejecting EA's offer to make the WiiU store be origin powered?

http://wiiudaily.com/2012/08/ea-origin-wii-u/

Anyway taking into account the amount of money Nintendo has been pulling in from 3DS hardware and software sales calling them "walking dead" is hardly accurate.

Also Harvest Moon on PC? You do realize that franchise isn't even published by Nintendo right?

I almost forgot about this. This would also have to factor in EA's statement that they don't have any plans to develop for Wii U. Why would they ask Nintendo to let their online store be powered by Origin excitedly then turn around and claim that they won't develop for the console because of how lacking in hardware it is? Clearly someone is offended that Nintendo would dare turn down their offer to put origin on their console! Think of all of the benefits! Well... um..

No. I can't think of many reasons why Nintendo would like EA being in control of their online store. It's looking more and more like EA is just upset and lashing out at this point. I want the Wii U to succeed but now I want it to succeed even more. If the Wii U becomes a thriving platform we'd get to watch EA eat it's own words. That would have to be one of the most satisfying things to ever see.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

I still don't get it why people get enraged by these kinds of statements. I mean, yeah, what he said might not be very polite or thoughtful and could've been expressed much better, but it's his opinion on the matter. He doesn't claim that it's EA's opinion, just some dude saying that he doesn't like Wii U. What's the deal with that?

 

[OuroborosChoked]

People don't buy Nintendo consoles for gritty shooters and year-old ports, so stop trying to sell them there. Make a game that can find a niche or demographic on a Nintendo platform, and you can make huge amounts of money. Just look at Level 5 (Professor Layton), Capcom (Monster Hunter) and Ubisoft (Just Dance).

I suppose that's the reason why titles like Star Fox 64 and Ocarina of Time weren't ported to the 3DS... Oh wait, yes they were.

Need I also remind you that two of the most highly anticipated Wii U games for 2013 are Aliens Colonial Marines (old port) and Wind Waker HD (really, really old port... er, excuse me... "remastering").

Yeah, Nintendo totally isn't a home for ports of old software... like Deus Ex: Human Revolution...

 

[Madman123456]

Kinda hard to disagree with the guy here. The Wii U is rather underwhelming, then again if the next box will force us to always go online then it's only a matter of how hard Sony will try to show social media integration into out faces.

If Sony and Microsoft act enough like morons it's entirely possible Nintendo will come out on top.

 

[Callate]

It's a stupid thing to say.

Even if it's 100% incontrovertible truth, which can't even really be verified until the competition makes itself available, if you're in the software business you do not burn bridges this way. If Microsoft and Sony's consoles don't do well and/or Nintendo's early entry into the market pays off, your company could end up wondering if they can cozy up to the people who have all those consoles already installed in people's homes... at which point your name gets brought up in an informal meeting.

Realistically, I don't think the Wii-U's story has been written yet. This was supposed to be the console that Nintendo wasn't holding up with first-party titles, and thus far, that hasn't panned out. Third-party titles have largely been ports of existing games, and Game Pad support has been gimmicky and obtrusive. But- if Nintendo can make better outreach to third-party developers and perhaps release some titles that really show off what the Gamepad can bring to gaming that the competition can't... I think they still have a real chance to make strong inroads this generation.

I don't think Wii-type sales will happen again; that was lightning in a bottle. But I certainly think they could be a contender, even if they have to do it without EA. The ports at least prove that the Wii-U can handle the Unreal engine, so losing Frostbite isn't necessarily a huge loss.