Electronic Arts stops Wii U development

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crunchyg

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Electronic Arts spokesman Jeff Brown told Kotaku today that the company is no longer making any games for the Wii U. "We have no games in development for the Wii U currently," the publisher announced. The news is coming on the heels of last week's announcements that neither Madden nor the newest Star Wars games are coming to Nintendo's home system.

While EA doesn't exclude a possibility of returning to the Wii U, the future of third-party gaming is looking bleak for Nintendo's console/tablet hybrid. As a reminder, EA's refusal to support the Sega Dreamcast served as one of the crushing blows to Sega's wonder machine, which led to Sega's eventual exit from the hardware business.

Let's hope that the remaining publishers and Nintendo's own franchises will carry the Wii U to sustainable installed base numbers, which it has yet to achieve.
 
I think this is more a sign of EA doing poorly than Nintendo's weakness. EA keeps laying people off, is in terrible financial shape, and just lost a CEO. The prospects of EA ending up the same way THQ are no longer implausible. Their arrogance hasn't served them well.
 
Haha they backtracked. Now they say there ARE, but just not as much as the PS4 or Xbox One
 
Whether they are or not will not make a difference for Wii U's success. EA has not made any worthwhile contributions to Nintendo's consoles in a long time. For the exception of FIFA and NCAA, I will not miss them.
 
Prof E Gadd is right. EA hasn't made any worthwhile contribution to a Nintendo system ever and their lack of development for the current system won't make a difference. No one who buys Nintendo wants to play EA games. They want to play Nintendo games and the games of franchises that are symbolic with Nintendo.
 
Considering how few games EA contributed to the Wii (undisputed winner of the current-gen competition)I don't think their possible refusal would matter much overall. Beyond that a system honestly needs very few IPs to be successful. I mean if you ask the average person what their favorite games are you'll generally receive the same couple of AAA releases and maybe a few side notes. Besides which it's still early days yet.
 
This whole story got blown way out of proportion. From what I could tell, the representative said that they weren't currently working on anything, and people took that to mean they were done altogether. Personally, I prefer to play third-party games on either the Xbox 360 or PS3, so it makes no difference to me.
 
Joker99352 said:
This whole story got blown way out of proportion. From what I could tell, the representative said that they weren't currently working on anything, and people took that to mean they were done altogether. Personally, I prefer to play third-party games on either the Xbox 360 or PS3, so it makes no difference to me.
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Hmm... the thing is when it comes to the media - it's better to say nothing at all rather than something painfully stupid. That is of course, if he actually misspoke rather than just being idiotic. As I said it doesn't matter although I did enjoy RE and Okami on the Wii as much if not more than on the 360.
 
Doesn't look like he misspoke. They said they have nothing in development "right now," which means they are not planning any games for Wii U. It takes 2 to 3 years to make a decent console game, longer for AAA titles. So yeah, it's a pretty sad state of affairs.

On a funnier note, EA wants you to stop hating them.

Electronic Arts: Video games firm wants to stop being 'hated'

Speaking to the BBC, Frank Gibeau, EA's president of labels, acknowledges his firm has an image problem.
"That type of feedback is disappointing personally for people inside of EA because we love our company and the games that we make," he says.

Consumerist magazine highlighted three "failings" when it reported EA had been voted the "worst company in America":

It fails to provide products people want and like.
Examples given included Sim City 5's online-only requirement and an unpopular ending to Mass Effect 3. It also suggested titles such as Dead Space 3 and Dragon Age 2 would have benefited from a longer development schedule.

It doesn't sell its products at a reasonable price.
The magazine said part of the reason the firm's sports titles were expensive was that it had signed deals with organisations, such as the National Football League, that prevented others releasing competing products. It also complained about the firm's desire to promote micro-transactions, which it described as "consumer chiselling".

It doesn't properly support the products it sells.
The magazine said players continued to complain about customer-service support despite a previous pledge by EA to improve its response process.
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LOL
 
EA doesn't want to be hated, but they continue to act in a way that suggests they really want to be hated. That said I don't care if they make anything for the WiiU, because I don't want to deal with their shenanigans on all my systems. The BS production values, the beating to death of series, the constant tacking of extra costs to the initial purchase... seriously screw EA.
 
I know their policies have been ridiculous, but I don't hate EA. I may be biased because I haven't personally been affected by those kinds of things. I don't like having to have online passes and those kinds of things, but didn't they just discontinue that altogether? To me, it's really no different than paying a subscription fee for a game like World of Warcraft. People are clearly willing to pay it, and as long as they aren't standing against it then it's going to keep happening.
 
It's not that people aren't standing against it... it's that people want to play more than they want EA to stop sucking all the fun out of things. And no they have not discontinued any of the jerky behavior. That said I don't hate them, but I do strongly dislike their business model.
 
EA is not what they used to be. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy their games, but the comapny is going downhill. I give them a few more years before the company either gets a total makover or gets sold off completely.
 
Seems to me that the main draw of Nintendo has also been it's exclusives. Mario, Zelda and Metroid alone are enough to sell a lot of systems. I do remember what happened to the Sega Dreamcast though. That was a shame because it was a great system in my opinion.
 
I don't think that it really matters all that much anymore. EA's golden days are long gone, and what we have now is merely a husk of a company that once provided us with fun games. Now EA is just a money making machine, and sadly there are still people out there stupid enough to feed it. I think that it's a good riddance as EA titles have been getting increasingly worse over the years and no one will miss them.
 
I have not bought a EA game in 3 years, I still attend my EAA (Electronics Arts Anonymous) meetings regularly, and I don't plan on ever relapsing into their cruel ways. They are never getting another penny from me!
 
Sounds like an EA Problem rather then a Nintendo problem. The only games I buy somewhat regularly from EA are Battlefield and NHL. Even those aren't purchased too often. Battlefield games tend to come out every 2 to 3 years and I buy NHL games every 3 or 4 years. This year is different because my favorite goalie is on the cover of NHL 14 (Martin Brodeur, yes i'm a devils fan :p) so I have to buy NHL 14 regardless, but the last NHL game I bought prior to this year's title was NHL 09, and even then, it was used for $25! :p EA not developing for the WiiU is a bit of a shame, but in all honesty, it's not the end of the console by any means. EA has been going down the tubes for awhile now and the Wii-U can certainly survive without them.
 
I don't really see EA as a huge contributor to the Wii U. I don't really care that EA decided not to make any more games because their games aren't that interesting. I only buy their games in a rare blue moon. :/
 
Medza said:
I don't think that it really matters all that much anymore. EA's golden days are long gone, and what we have now is merely a husk of a company that once provided us with fun games. Now EA is just a money making machine, and sadly there are still people out there stupid enough to feed it. I think that it's a good riddance as EA titles have been getting increasingly worse over the years and no one will miss them.
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Lets insult the faceless company not the people who buy from said company. That said there are some good games that come out from under the EA name - ME 3 is one and Dragon Age is another off the top of my head. I know people don't like how EA beats franchises to death and some of the stupid policies used in the past, but let us dial back the vitriol and such. Hyperbole never did anyone any favors.
 
EA later backtracked, and said that they do support the Wii U, just that they don't have anything in the works, but have their eyes on it, and may make something for it in the future. But I think that statement was more to "save face" in the outcry of the general public who disliked EA's comments about not wanting to make anything for the Wii U.

In all honesty, Nintendo doesn't need EA. They can easily survive without them. EA, however, can't afford to start alienating themselves from console makers. Especially with their business practices. Like, taking and older game, and slapping a new label on it, and calling it "new", like they like to do with their sports games from time to time. It feels like EA doesn't care about their products one bit, at times. They just lazily pump them out on a regular basis. Eventually, that's going to come back and haunt them. If EA isn't careful, they'll end up just like THQ, and their precious franchises will be distributed among the other companies. EA is in a downward spiral of mismanagement. Lately, they say one thing, and then backtrack soon after. Then, when it comes to Nintendo, they have clearly given up on Nintendo a while back. They sell old games as "new", for one. But also, because they lazily pump out games regularly, they clearly put no real effort into some of their ports to Nintendo consoles, and then have the audacity to complain about the sales being the systems fault, and not their games, when their game was a lazily, incomplete, mess, clearly lacking features that they put on their other versions. Not all of their games. But it does happen. And it'll come back to bite EA in the end. And they'll have done it to themselves, all while blaming others.

I don't know what's going on over there at EA, but it seems that they are on a path to collect a 3rd straight "Worst Company in America" award. Their franchises make enough money to keep them in business for a while. But if they keep being lazy with ports and trying to pass off old games as the newest version, people aren't going to put up with them, and will stop supporting them. Their sales are already starting to go down. EA needs to stop burning bridges, and 'right the ship' by getting back on track, and releasing quality titles. Their sports licenses deals made them a lot of money, but it also made them extremely lazy as well. Their effort went down, fast. And their licenses are starting to run out fast too. If they don't watch it, their license deals won't save them anymore, and they could eventually be in some real trouble. Their reputation has already taken a huge hit over the years, and they are not the same company that they were in the past. They still have potential. But it's unclear whether they will seize their potential, or if they will go down the same path that THQ did. I guess we'll find out soon enough. They have some franchises that should keep them in business for a long time. But it's how they manage and release them that's worrisome.
 
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