But Riccitiello also said EA would also be bringing “core intellectual property” such as Dead Space to Wii, in editions custom-designed for the strengths of the platform.
Riccitiello also described how the EA thinks of the industry in terms of three “buckets” (excluding EA’s mobile and Pogo businesses): Online games, Wii games, and Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games. The EA CEO says he places the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in the same “bucket” because “the lion’s share of titles developed for those platforms are common.”
“We’re proud to have great marketing partnerships around key exclusives, but in general, think of us as having those three buckets,” he says.
And as the market leader, the Wii will receive as much focus from EA now as both the next-gen systems together. “Nintendo is the leader; they’re getting half our emphasis in terms of title counts,” said Riccitiello.
“You live, you learn you adjust and improve,” he added, explaining why the company’s Wii initiatives would be more successful in the coming year than in the previous year. “This year’s title slate is a significant improvement from last year.”
Don’t try to bury the lede, Long! We know what you’re up to. You’re here to dance a jig because EA basically said “Guess what? Half of all games from now on will be Wii games!”
-TomMissing: the Sims bucket.
And the PC bucket. :(
It’s big news, certainly. I figured people here would be more interested in the Dead Space thing, though.
I probably won’t play it, because after reading about it containing dismemberment as a gameplay function, it’s really not my bag.
We can start a new thread with the title: 50% OF EA GAMES WILL BE ON WII. if you want to, though. Actually, someone else will probably do that even after noticing this thread exists. :)
Yeah, that’s fairly bizarre given how big EA’s Sims division is – and they are almost exclusively on the PC.
I’ve talked to some Wii only gamers and sports fans about the All Play line, and they said they just wanted Madden like it is on the other platforms, not some dumbed down BS. In fact if anything I think its the failure of that line (Peter Moore sure earned his paycheck on that one) that prompted EA to put stuff like Dead Space on the platform instead of just continuously churning out MySims or EA Playground or whatever.
Dude, are you kidding? The Sims have been ported to other platforms for a long time now. And I’m fairly sure EA’s MySims dealies on the Wii were very successful.
-Tom
I rather liked Madden 09 All-Play. Not the all-play features themselves, per se, but it was hard to go over to a friend with a 360 only to find that throwing motions do nothing and a flick of the wrist doesn’t tackle anybody or setup a stiff-arm. I think the controls of Madden 09 were well-implemented, as far as Wii games go, and more intuitive than traditional controllers.
It was at least similar enough in that the computer defenders can’t cover play-action on either console. And if the Wii doesn’t have enough horsepower/storage space to handle the incredibly asinine “rewind” feature found on the 360 version, that can only be a good thing.
I knew there were console ports but I was under the impression that they were small fry compared to the series’ sales on the PC. Has that changed just recently, perhaps with those Wii things that I totally ignored?
Does this mean 50% of EA games will be either exclusive OR ported to Wii? Or does it mean they will start developing 50% of their games exclusively for the Wii? I hope they don’t try to change future games to accomodate the Wii. Similarly, I hope they don’t try to change games that could be exclusive to the Wii, and take advantage of that system’s benefits, in order to accomodate the 360.
It means that EA Playground 2 will have a really huge marketing budget.
You know, this is exactly the kind of catastrophic outcome Wii haters were afraid of, big publishers shifting resources away from big time, HD console projects to cater to Nintendo’s underpowered gimmick box.
A dev at EA posted this at GAF…
Not sure how much I can say if anything about the folks working on the Dead Space Wii. I’m not working on it myself, although I have seen it running, hence my earlier comment about it being unlikely that it will be graphically disappointing for the majority on neogaf.
You may now returned to your regularly scheduled FUD.
Also…
That is hilarious.
The video game industry is not a dump truck. It’s more like a series of buckets.
I know there’s a joke here somewhere about a series of tubes, but I’ll be damned if I can find it.
I am however pleased that EA has realized that Wii game development requires a different mindset and approach from 360/PS3 games. Second rate ports of games for the more expensive consoles wasn’t ever going to be a successful strategy.
I suspect Dead Space Wii will look pretty good. Since it was developed first for 360/PS3/PC, and already has really high quality assets, they will probably just scale those down until the Wii can handle it, which is much better than what most games developed for the Wii get. A Wii is supposed to be more powerful than an original Xbox, and yet we haven’t seen anything on it so far that rivals the graphics in Chronicles of Riddick, for example.
But now, with Madworld, and maybe Dead Space Wii, we’re finally going to start seeing games on the Wii that actually look better than what the original Xbox could handle.
While I think this is funny, coming from someone who claims to like games, I did find this The Top 7… Nintendo mistakes to be an interesting read:
7 - Creating the Wii
Can the same magic that made the DS an international phenomenon happen with a console? Nintendo’s betting on it. Betting it all, really.
Because what do you do next? Five years from now, when the PS4 and NextBox show up, they’re going to jump in hardware power again. And then Nintendo’s left with a machine that looks two generations old instead of one. The motion controls, now considered somewhere in between “the best damn thing that’s ever happened in the world” to “gimmicky stupid childish nonsense,” will be super played out and exploited. Unless there’s some other gameplay innovation on the horizon, Wii could be viewed as a fad, susceptible to the same fickle emotions that killed snap bracelets, pet rocks and Sega. And if Nintendo bites the bullet and gives the machine a visual kick in the pants, well there goes its whole mantra that graphics don’t matter. There’s just enough steam with this idea to last one generation, and none after that.
Today, the Wii is insanely popular with almost every audience. But if this wave of good vibes ever ends, Nintendo’s gonna be stranded. Casuals will be tired of Wii Sports, with no interest in shelling out $50 for a Wii Sports 2, and the typical gamer will be more interested in playing something with a normal controller, one you don’t have to clear the room for.
Sure we love Super Paper Mario and can’t wait to see Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but do either of these games have anything to do with the Wii Remote’s primary function? Nope. And most third party games that find their way onto the system have control setups that baffle even the most hardcore of gamers. Hold B while flicking up to swing a punch? Please. Nintendo better have some crazy unique ideas coming up or we’ll have to start clutching our DS systems even closer.
It seems like Nintendo will have their own new box to run alongside the Ps4 and the NextBox, but this isn’t my industry so what do I know. I did find that article interesting, though. I had no idea Ninendo had:
1 - Opening the doors to PlayStation
If there’s one moment in time that forever changed the videogame world, it’s the day Nintendo stabbed Sony in the back in front of the whole world.
Anyway, I’m pretty platform agnostic and go where I think there’s a game I’ll like. This past month I’ve played Fallout 3 on the Xbox, Twilight Princess on the Wii, and Disgaea on the NDS. Shutting out an entire platform seems silly.
I’m more than happy to get liquored up at a friends house and play a little Marble Mania on the Wii, but I have zero interest in ever spending my own money on the platform. I don’t really play casual PC games, either. I’ve never tried bejeweled or peggle or any of those games. I haven’t even played solitare on a computer this decade. That just isn’t the kind of experience that interests me.
We talked a bunch about this in one of the other Wii threads, but if all the publishers moved all their “hardcore” franchises to the Wii I wouldn’t be interested. Sure, it’s Dead Space, but it’s the ugliest version I could possibly play. If Assassin’s Creed 2 or Far Cry 3 or Final Fantasy 13 all of a sudden became Wii exclusive I’d be mad that they were being forced on to a platform that will never to live up to the technical promise of the franchise. And with what will in all likelihood be really tacky motion controls…