If they are meeting, Nintendo fans should hope for a win-win situation
NintendoLife posted a rumor recently about a future meeting between Nintendo and Electronic Arts regarding NX publishing. According to occasional Did You Know Gaming/Unseen64 contributor Liam Robertson, the meeting will discuss the support – or lack thereof – for EA Sports titles on the NX.
And if you’re hoping for the NX to be a success, or at least perform better than Wii U, you want to cross your fingers that the meeting goes well. Admittedly, it can’t go any worse than EA’s Nintendo support (or lack thereof) over the past three years, but having EA making games for the NX is going to be a clear signal as to how Nintendo’s new systems will fare outside of Japan.
The Sports Factor
The meeting is largely supposed to be about EA Sports, and given the way sports titles sell in North America this is no big shock. According to the NPD Group, three of the top 10 best-selling games in the United States last year were licensed sports titles: Madden 2016 (#2), NBA 2k16 (#6) and FIFA 16 (#8). None of those games were published on a Nintendo system. It’s even worse in Europe, Nintendo’s weakest market, where FIFA dominates mindshare to the point where it’s been in the top 40 charts since time immemorial and people will explicitly not buy a console that doesn’t have FIFA on it.
Getting players to adopt the Nintendo ecosystem for a sports title may be difficult, though Nintendo’s tradition of strong local play and potentially free online play could be a selling point. EA does have a bigger focus on online connectivity lately, though, as the EA Ultimate Team modes in Madden and FIFA have been gigantic money-makers. Fortunately, Nintendo’s growing digital revenues indicate there could be a market for this mode on Nintendo consoles, but if the next systems and Nintendo Account don’t create a smooth process for buying the cards – they’re in every EA sports game including next month’s UFC title – the base effort of a sports game may not be worth it unless porting from a current console or PC is literally something that can be done by an intern in a day.
EA’s chief concern is marketing to sports fans as live sports are often referred to as the last DVR-proof thing on television. Nintendo has done a lot of advertising on Adult Swim, Nickelodeon, and other channels aimed at the younger audience, but sports is huge in the 18-34 demographic prized by advertisers that see a lot of ads for Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and EA Sports games. The lack of video services on the Wii U – probably a side effect of the stillborn TVii – doesn’t help matters. Nintendo has a share in Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) through their ownership of the Seattle Mariners, but they don’t have the MLB At Bat app on the Wii U nor any of the other services MLBAM supports, such as the WWE Network and HBO Now.
EA Sports wants to create an environment for sports fans to thrive, and Nintendo should be in a position at the turn of a generation to remake their image as far as sports goes. If the NX can win Comeback Player of the Year, it’s going to mean more people buy the next systems, which means more money for everyone. Nintendo hasn’t done an EA Sports game bundle ever, though they’ve done 3rd party system bundles (Just Dance, ZombiU, Skylanders). If the Microsoft marketing deals in the US for EA system bundles end soon, a Godfather offer may not be out of the question – and EA sounds willing to make the deal.
The Other EA Franchises
But it isn’t just sports that should be a concern for Nintendo as far as EA is concerned.
Nintendo has a bit of a Star Wars presence through Disney Infinity games and the upcoming LEGO Star Wars Force Awakens game. But the biggest Star Wars seller of last year, and the game that took best advantage of a record-breaking movie’s coattails, was Star Wars Battlefront. It managed to beat EA’s own expectations, and they expected to sell 12 million copies. Nintendo has a long history of great Star Wars shooters, so Battlefront would have been a great fit for the Wii U – except for the engine.
A super-majority of EA’s games outside of the sports realm run on the DICE-developed Frostbite engine, which is a decision that was made around the time of the Wii U’s release as they moved into full production of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One games. This may lend credence to the rumor that EA sent their Wii U devkits aside from the ones for Need for Speed Most Wanted’s Wii U version back before a single Wii U was sold: the Wii U couldn’t handle Frostbite, so why bother keeping the devkits around? If the NX – or at least one of its components – is powerful enough to run Frostbite for the next 3-4 years, that’s a big step in getting non-sport support back. And DICE did at one time want to make Battlefield exclusive to the GameCube, as we revealed on the NWR Telethon a few years ago.
Other EA franchises would be a good fit for a Nintendo console audience as well. Nintendo fans are always down for a quality RPG, and though EA executives screwed Mass Effect 3 on Wii U by releasing the trilogy on PS3/360 two weeks before the Wii U launch, the series is starting a new story with Mass Effect: Andromeda before the end of next March. Should Frostbite run on the next console, it could be interesting to see which releases first; the console, or Andromeda. (Personally, I’m betting on Andromeda being first.)
Another service that would be a benefit for Nintendo fans if it was worth the EA investment is EA Access. For $30 a year, EA games become available for 10 hours of play before wide launch, and they also provide some back catalogue games free for the life of the subscription. It’d provide a point of differentiation from the PS4, and if porting titles was simple enough, Nintendo-only owners may get access to titles such as Dragon Age: Inquisition and see if it was worth winning Game of the Year over Bayonetta 2 at the 2014 Game Awards.
The Knockback Effect
Perhaps the biggest effect EA returning to the NX would have is to prove the system is worth it for Western third parties.
As mentioned earlier, EA is rumored to have sent their devkits for the Wii U back to Nintendo before the Wii U even launched; the ultimate sign of a lack of confidence in the console. Within two years, most mature, high-selling content was gone from the Wii U. But if the biggest publisher in the industry is willing to get back on board with a system, that’s a sign that the ecosystem is at least workable for third parties, and their engines will likely work there. EA is also bringing independent developers to the fore more, such as the recent release of Unravel on PS4/XB1/PC, and the developer wants to bring it to NX but doesn't know enough about the NX to begin development.
If EA is on board and their sports games are performing well, that would be a signal for 2k to bring NBA and WWE games back. Perhaps Mafia III follows, or there’s a late port of Grand Theft Auto V to the next console that keeps it in the NPD top 10 for another two years. A strong performance in Battlefront could mean Call of Duty returns to Nintendo consoles (and maybe shows up on the eShop this time) or The Division and Destiny come to the next console because there’ll be a thriving shooter community. But it’s going to start with EA. Their abandonment of the Dreamcast over the existence of Sega Sports may not have been the direct cause of that system’s death but it sure as hell didn’t help. EA is a kingmaker in the Western gaming sphere.
Is Nintendo in a position where they can see this? Probably. The fact that Kimishima, a former NoA CEO, is running the show now does help in this regard; he’s been exposed to the strength of EA up close. Nintendo can’t give away the farm to EA, but if the console or ecosystem is strong and it’s easy to keep games at a level EA’s accustomed to, we’ll be able to stop making “unprecedented partnership” jokes.
