EA blames Wii U's 'lack of online engagement'

EA no longer has any games in development on Wii U. And with neither Frostbite nor EA Sports Ignite currently working on Nintendo's new home console, it seems unlikely that any Wii U games will be coming from one of the world's biggest publishers.

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EA no longer has any games in development on Wii U. And with neither Frostbite nor EA Sports Ignite currently working on Nintendo's new home console, it seems unlikely that any Wii U games will be coming from one of the world's biggest publishers.

Sales are obviously an issue for EA. The company released four games on Wii U at launch, and sales for those games have been "disappointing," according to EA's Peter Moore. However, there's another factor that plays into EA's disinterest in Nintendo hardware: online connectivity.

"The lack of online engagement that we see on Wii U [is troubling]," Moore told GI.biz. "It's so integral to what we do. They're so small it's hardly worth running the servers. It seems like a box that's out of sync with the future of EA--which is one that gives a real social feel to our games. The Wii U feels like an offline experience right now."

According to the report, Wii U's languishing online community is one of the reasons why this year's Madden is not making an appearance on Nintendo hardware.

However, there is hope for the future. A few of Nintendo's upcoming first-party titles will emphasize online play. Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros will undoubtedly get more Wii Us connected and engaged with Nintendo Network. EA will have one less excuse should online gamers begin to flock to Wii U.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 8, 2013 2:30 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, EA blames Wii U's 'lack of online engagement'.

    EA no longer has any games in development on Wii U. And with neither Frostbite nor EA Sports Ignite currently working on Nintendo's new home console, it seems unlikely that any Wii U games will be coming from one of the world's biggest publishers.

    • reply
      July 8, 2013 3:15 PM

      Nintendo needs to drop the price on this thing soon.... and fix the damn online. Not that I'm any HUGE fan of EA, but they do put out a shitload of games. I can't see how the Wii U can survive without some of the titles from EA.

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        July 8, 2013 3:37 PM

        It just needs some good fucking games.

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        July 8, 2013 3:40 PM

        Price drop won't change any minds. A killer game might.

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          July 8, 2013 3:47 PM

          I think the bigger problem is that it needs a more than 'one thing' to turn things around.

          It at minimum needs all of these things to even start to turn things around:

          -price drop
          -A few killer games
          -A consistent flow of high profile games
          -Rework of their online system

          • reply
            July 8, 2013 3:53 PM

            Online works great what issues do people have?

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              July 8, 2013 4:14 PM

              Your NetworkID being tied to hardware for one.

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                July 8, 2013 4:22 PM

                That's about the only thing I can think of. The only problem I have with their online is that more games don't use it.

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                  July 8, 2013 4:26 PM

                  I got one for Christmas and had a hell of the time getting it updated with the download constantly timing out and taking forever to download. Their capacity really hasn't had the opportunity to be tested much, but the problems the network had last Christmas doesn't instill a lot of confidence in it.

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                    July 8, 2013 4:28 PM

                    I've had one since launch and that first big update is the only issue anyone has had.

                    I've bought several multi-gig games over their service, streamed a shitload of netflix, and never with any issue.

                    Everyone has launch capacity issues, that's a silly thing to hold against a console half a year later.

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                      July 8, 2013 6:27 PM

                      No Ignite or Madden for PC via Origin, no titles for Wii U users. Their snootiness will catch up to them the same way Nvidia got excluded from the console race, fittingly, for their ego (the company chart they showed which other graphics company they took down, including 3dfx.) After watching Nintendo save the quality of their upcoming games by telling their workers not to worry about being laid off, I hope Nintendo gets to a point where they can buy EA and restore the magic kingdom of video games back to its righteous order.

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      July 8, 2013 4:00 PM

      Make up your mind EA, first you are good with Nintendo. Then it's sales and you aren't making games. Then it slipped out that you are making games. Then you said the Frostbite engine won't run on the WiiU, then you announce that it can be scaled down to cell phones. Then you said there are games in development in the future. Now you are deciding to blame the online and are back to not making games.

      How long until they change your mind again?

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      July 8, 2013 8:19 PM

      Remind me again, did EA have any big selling games on the 3DS the first year of its miserable life? How did the 3DS do again?

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        July 9, 2013 8:15 AM

        it's doing quite well, actually.

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        July 9, 2013 8:39 AM

        EA isn't nearly the force on handhelds that they are on home consoles

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