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WiiU

EA's Peter Moore Talks Company's View of Wii U

by Tyler Ohlew - October 31, 2012, 9:35 am EDT
Total comments: 20 Source: Wired, http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/10/peter-moore-...

Will Madden find a home on the eShop?

Electronic Arts' Peter Moore spoke on the Wii U, noting that, while its online structures are an improvement over the Wii's, EA is unwilling to commit to digital delivery of its games through the eShop.

In an interview with Wired, EA's chief operating officer explained that the company is taking a wait and see approach with the Wii U's eShop. Madden 13, Mass Effect 3, and FIFA 13 will remain disc-only for the console, with future titles being decided on based off eShop sales of other companies' titles.

Moore addresses the Wii U by comparing it to Nintendo's predecessor, the Wii. He likens the Wii to a meteor that, after its time in the sky, has all but vanished from view. He notes that the system lacked the ability to keep hold of its customers and keep them playing. Moore believes that the lack of a proper online infrastructure was in part to blame. He concludes by saying that the Wii U is an improvement over that model, but disputes how far 32 GB of memory can carry the user as his or her library builds.

Talkback

geoOctober 31, 2012

Sounds to me like Nintendo said 'no' to Origin support on Wii U, so EA said no to Nintendo.  Their loss, I guess.

Fatty The HuttOctober 31, 2012

Man, EA is seriously pissed at Nintendo (or vice-versa, or maybe both).

Remember when then-EA CEO, John Ricatello, came out on stage during Nintendo's E3 2011 presentation to say how much EA would support the Wii U? Remember that?
Now look at therm, just a little over a year later. Like fallen lovers.

I think a couple of things probably happened:
1. EA could not convince good ol' stubborn Nintendo to embrace EA's Origin as the Wii U's exclusive online solution. Good for the Big N on that one. Now EA is bad mouthing Nintendo's online solution. Hmmm, curious...
2. Nintendo favoured Ubisoft most during games development for the launch of Wii U. EA became the jilted lover. How very French of EA.

edit: geo beat me to observation #1.

TJ SpykeOctober 31, 2012

Fatty, Ricatello hasn't been President of EA since 2004 (though he has been CEO since 2007).

Hopefully other companies do well enough with digital sales on Wii U that EA jumps on board.

CericOctober 31, 2012

If Memory Serves EA has stopped releasing games on Steam as well (or at least Mass Effect 3)  Which makes sense if you think about it.  Your trying to make a competitor in Origin so all digital must be Origin.  By not releasing digital on Wii U they are not cutting themselves out of that.  Just keeping to the traditional Medium.

AdrockOctober 31, 2012

In this case, I wouldn't call Nintendo stubborn. The potential ramifications of giving a single 3rd party publisher that much pull on Wii U could have devastated Nintendo's strained, but slowly improving relationships with every other 3rd party in existence. Even if Nintendo held veto power with a hypothetical Origin on Wii U (i.e. EA wants to introduce X and Y, Nintendo says, "STFU, no"), I think they made the right call. The path to earning 3rd party trust isn't to align with just 1 of them.

Fatty The HuttOctober 31, 2012

Quote from: TJ

Fatty, Ricatello hasn't been President of EA since 2004 (though he has been CEO since 2007).

Oops, thanks. The great thing about these boards is I knew I could count on someone to pick up the slack on my no-research.

edit: fixed original post.
Also, who fuckin cares anyway? Just sayin.

I'm not buying Madden or FIFA this year for Wii U because they're missing features from the 360 and PS3 versions, but I want to get the Wii U ones next year assuming they're up to date with the others, and I'd like to buy them digitally, so I hope EA gets over their little feud with Nintendo by then.

MrPhishfoodOctober 31, 2012

I think there is some merit to what he says. They still need to see how quickly people will catch on when it comes to attaching an external HD to the Wii U. I don't know how much work it takes to make a game ready for digital distribution but I imagine the costs greatly outweigh the potential profit the potential profit greatly outweigh the costs. Especially considering the publisher will take a larger cut from a digital purchase as opposed to a retail purchase at the same price.

Undoubtedly if Nintendo had gone with Origin then EA would be all over it like bees and honey.

Now that I that I've thought more about it Peter Moore is so sour he should be working in the vinegar business.
(yeah I got that from Professor Layton)


EDIT: Oops

TJ SpykeOctober 31, 2012

It's not really harder to make a digital version, even a couple dozen people buying it would recoup the cost.

I'm pretty sure the digital version requires almost no work, it's just the same thing that gets pressed onto the disc except uploaded to a server.

broodwarsOctober 31, 2012

Having worked on an EA Wii game with online multiplayer and having SEEN how many people actually used the feature in the past, I can't say I'm surprised by this and I also can't say that EA's particularly wrong about the Wii.  However, this is a pretty hilarious bit of backpeddling after EA really came out to shill Wii U's online service at E3 2011.

I guess Nintendo just burned their last bridge with EA when they allegedly rejected EA's desire to funnel everything through Origin.  Were they wrong to do so?  *shrugs* Probably not, but I can understand why EA's so cold to the Wii U right now.

Nintendo absolutely made the right decision there, though, and EA was pretty unreasonable to expect Nintendo to go along with that.

Mop it upOctober 31, 2012

It certainly seems tough to release a system in this day and age, when everyone wants it to "prove" something first.

TruenoGTOctober 31, 2012

EA cares more about its shareholders than its customers these days anyway. Nintendo will do fine without their half-ass ports of half-ass games.

BlackNMild2k1October 31, 2012

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

Nintendo absolutely made the right decision there, though, and EA was pretty unreasonable to expect Nintendo to go along with that.

EA is acting like the guy at the other end of the bar that was buying drinks for a girl.

mouse here for example

Kytim89October 31, 2012

So I guess that we will never get Dead Space 3 for the Wii U?

TJ SpykeOctober 31, 2012

EA will still do it because it will be easy money for them.

Chocobo_RiderNovember 01, 2012

oh, EA, just keep shooting yourselves in the foot.  that'll show 'em!!

smallsharkbigbiteNovember 03, 2012

It could be the reimbursement model (wiiware had to sell 5,000 copies before developer saw a dime) coupled with the lack of storage options that is putting EA off. 


I wouldn't completely absolve Nintendo of blame since this is a current theme of big name third party publishers not including things that they have on other consoles.  Having said that, I'm not sure their is any consumer that is download only and the disc will be available, so this doesn't really limit consumer options in any way. 

azekeNovember 03, 2012

Quote from: smallsharkbigbite

It could be the reimbursement model (wiiware had to sell 5,000 copies before developer saw a dime) coupled with the lack of storage options that is putting EA off.

Too bad EA did nothing on WiiWare...

And eShop doesn't have that restriction...

And Wii U as a matter of fact has more storage options than any other consoles.

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