About this whole EA/Nintendo thing... does Nintendo need EA?

EA software does not drive Nintendo console sales. Never has.

Madden and Fifa (their only 'important' franchises) are PS3 and 360-entrenched.
 
I actually wrote a blog post about something similar to this the other day. Nintendo has an amazing list of IPs that cover most generes. With EA not developing for the Wii U, Nintendo is mainly missing out on sports and FPS games. If Nintendo could buy a few more studios and have them focus on creating new sports and FPS games, I think they could be in great position for the future.
 
Does Nintendo need EA? No, probably not.
Would having EA games on their platform help sell Wii U's? Definitely.

Nintendo obviously did something to really piss off EA, otherwise we would definitely at least be seeing some kind of token support. I mean, even the Gamecube got stuff like Madden til the end of it's cycle. There is more to this than the official story of 'Our late port of Fifa sold like crap so we're abandoning ship'.
 
ForteanMan said:
I wouldn't call 15 billion dollars in the bank surviving though. They've done fairly well for themselves overall. Additionally, as others have pointed out. EA is not the only third party that exists. ATLUS is a great example of a third party that is very supportive of Nintendo. The next mainline SMT game is coming to the 3DS as an example.

I'm certain that Nintendo will be able to survive and thrive with or without EA's support. Does it suck? Certainly, but it's not the end of the world for them.
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They only have 15 billion in the bank because they struck Oil with the Wii, but even Oil wells dry up and theirs most definitely has. Their lack of foresight has cost them dearly.
 
In the West where it really matters for console games, yes they do.

The last console with no EA support was the Dreamcast, and that says a lot.
 
liger05 said:
It's all about perception.
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Pretty much. EA's never been a huge seller or a key driver for Nintendo hardware (unlike with Sega back in the 90s). No EA support definitely hurts Nintendo, but it's more a perception issue than in raw sales. Not that image and perception isn't important, it's damaging Nintendo's platforms all the same and really opens the door for more major publishers to drop out.
 
Htown said:
they've been doing great portable business for ages without EA's help. It's not like the Wii had the best support from EA, either.
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Wii had the luxury of being lightning captured in a bottle. Wii U doesn't have the luxury of appealing to either the core or the casuals. Without an attractive reason to simply buy the console, casuals won't return. Without actual third party support, the core won't return. Nintendo, like the other 2, rely on third party licenses to make up a large part of their profits. Without third parties, their profits are going to take a huge hit. As for the portable business. It's not doing great.
 
waypoetic said:
Short answer: yea they do. They need a lot of third party support - but they don't got any.
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Because, everyone else who isn't EA ceased to exist apparently.

There is no SEGA, there is no Capcom, there is no Ubisoft, there is no Namco, there is no Atlus, all of which had games that people bought more often on Nintendo hardware than EA games and that Nitnedo gamers are more interested in.

Its sad that EA is the only third party dev in existence and that their games were the only ones that sold on the Wii U. / supreme sarcasm
 
TheFLYINGManga_Ka said:
Unlike the other big two, Sony and MS, i think Nintendo is just fine without EA.

Any must-have EA games on 3DS/DS? Henry Hatsworth maybe? Big seller? No. Do people buy Nintendo for Madden or FIFA? Again, no.
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Just looking at U's performance in the market right now I don't see how anyone can feel they don't need a particular publisher let alone the biggest one in the industry.

The more popular big name games from publishers the better. To just shrug while franchises like Battlefield, Crysis, Mass Effect, Dead Space, and Madden completely pass the system by is foolish. You're not only thumbing your nose at those, but whatever brand new franchises are created this coming generation. The U needs to be a complete system, not just the one you buy for Nintendo games. That's why it will continue to rest in the gutter.
 
Kimawolf said:
Well to me it just means other publishers in those genres will have the market as it grows and matures, all to itself. NBA2k will be there I'm sure, COD will be there, Sam Fisher will be there, so again, all this does is remove competition for other publishers, so I was a publisher i'd be thrilled.
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It could go that way. Or other pubs might agree with EA and think theres no market for that type of game on wii u. Looking at the responses of a lot of wii u owners to this news, they may be right.
 
They don't need EA, they need games that will sell the Wii-U. EA would help them in a better direction but in the end, people buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games.
 
Star wars is the big loss here. Unless all their future SW gamers are targeting the hardcore crowd, they are losing a potential big seller on their console.
 
I honestly can't even remember the last EA game I bought or played. It sucks that they lost EA support but I can see it not affecting them all that much.. yet.

And if the WiiU does better, FIFA will probably be back.
 
Nintendo could use someone like Left Field for Soccer, basket, eggball...

But community building FPS games are more important after that you need sport games to sustain the dudebro base
 
Raide said:
They don't need EA, they need games that will sell the Wii-U. EA would help them in a better direction but in the end, people buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games.
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You were going well until the last statement.

People buy Nintendo consoles for "good" games that are "unique". Who makes them is irrelevant.
 
GoddyofAus said:
They only have 15 billion in the bank because they struck Oil with the Wii, but even Oil wells dry up and theirs most definitely has. Their lack of foresight has cost them dearly.
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I would agree with that. Nintendo has an amazing lack of foresight, but then again the old adage in video games is to "never count Nintendo out". It will be interesting to see how they do as the next console cycle actually begins.

I definitely don't see them catching lightning in a bottle with the Wii U, it will almost certainly never reach Wii status. Still, I suppose only time will tell what the outcome of this may be.
 
Nintendo doesn't need EA no. Look at what EA has blessed the Wii U with so far... shit ports, or incredibly late ports.

Nintendo needs more Nintendo though.

nubbe said:
Nintendo could use someone like Left Field for Soccer, basket, eggball...

But community building FPS games are more important after that you need sport games to sustain the dudebro base
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Dudebros (aka 15 year olds males) will never buy a Nintendo console.
 
MrNyarlathotep said:
EA do not by any stretch of the imagination represent all third party offerings.
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It's not just EA though. They are simply the first ones to make it "official". Take-Two doesn't have any Wii U games (except NBA), Konami doesnt, Bethesda doesnt, Square & Namco don't seem to be very interested either.

Wii U Third-Party is essentially Ubisoft + Warner + Sonic games. Maybe that's all they need, I don't know.
 
nubbe said:
Nintendo could use someone like Left Field for Soccer, basket, eggball...

But community building FPS games are more important after that you need sport games to sustain the dudebro base
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You do know that the bet selling sports games on Nintendo consoles are the ones made by Nintendo right?

Wii Sports? World record?

Now that i think about it, why didn't Nintendo just make a Wii U Sports?
 
KojiKnight said:
EA ended up becoming the much larger company and therefore they got to start dictating terms versus having Nintendo dictate to them.
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You must have missed my point.

EA started on consoles as a genesis / megadrive exclusive publisher.
Half the titles I listed never appeared on the SNEs, and the other half only received late ports towards the end of its lifespan.

EA are also not a 'much' larger company.
 
krizzx said:
Because, everyone else who isn't EA ceased to exist apparently.

There is no SEGA, there is no Capcom, there is no Ubisoft, there is no Namco, there is no Atlus, all of which had games that people bought more often on Nintendo hardware than EA games and that Nitnedo gamers are more interested in.

Its sad that EA is the only third party dev in existence and that their games were the only ones that sold on the Wii U. / supreme sarcasm
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After next week Capcom will have zero announced titles in development for the WiiU.
Namco's only announced upcoming WiiU title is a Nintendo collaboration.
Atlus's only announced WiiU game is a Nintendo collaboration.
 
krizzx said:
You were going well until the last statement.

People buy Nintendo consoles for "good" games that are "unique". Who makes them is irrelevant.
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There are plenty of games that come out that Nintendo don't make and they pretty much bomb. Nintendo games have such a massive draw, no wonder 3rd parties have issues with Nintendo. Outside of Ubisoft and their dancing games, 3rd parties just don't know how to compete with Nintendo.
 
The problem is the old way of doing things on a Nintendo console for EA isn't working and EA refuses to adjust. Rather than designing a game around the Wii U system, they rather just lazily port games and wonder why they aren't selling. If EA announced tomorrow that Mirror's Edge 2 is exclusive to the Wii U or there is a Boom Blox U, it might help the relationship between the two. Nintendo needs EA just like Sony & Microsoft need EA, but EA stupidly thinks they don't need Nintendo.

I think it'll be a different story once Nintendo finds something from a third party publisher that will sell like crazy on the Wii U.
 
Smiles and Cries said:
If you ever buy an EA game on a Nintendo platform ever again you are a fool

EA should just stay away they burned enough bridges still waiting for my Need For Speed Most Wanted DLC such an awesome game :(
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Lol. Take my advice, you don't want it. It's laughably overpriced and they throw spam throughout the game reminding you to buy the DLC. I was pretty tempted to buy one of the packs at first but after a while, I refused to buy anything simply out of principle.
 
I don't see a single good thing coming from this breakout. EA is a leader in the gaming industry, whether we like it or not, and more company's could follow them.

Another thing that worries me: people are hoping that the fact that FIFA 14 wont be on the WiiU will benefit Pro Evolution Soccer. But Konami could launch a really mediocre product and people will still buy it, because there's no alternative.
 
vagabondarts said:
EA sucks. Their games are all hype and no substance. No big loss.
The mainstream Madden players wouldn't have bought the WiiU anyway.
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Get ready to hear this from more 3rd parties.

WiiU needs games but it's such a loss making machine for 3rd parties that even the valiant efforts may not produce enough. It's going to take a couple of years of games to really get things going but I'm not sure how the conditions of the market will be like for WiiU at that point with PS4/Durango coming on strong.
 
Nintendo doesn't need EA. EA's outright abandonment of the Dreamcast hurt Sega because Sega had the jock-gamer market cornered since the days of the Sega Genesis and there was significant overlap between EA and Sega's respective audiences, so when EA left...it was felt hard. Nintendo consumers and loyalists obviously do not care about EA games and any void created by EA's absence from Wii U's portfolio can be quickly filled by a sincere effort on Nintendo's part to create a substitute for EA games. A fleshed out Wii Sports 3 with football, soccer, and baseball would do bonkers.
 
They don't need EA, but they needed at least FIFA I think. They could survive without it, but still it's not good for Nintendo.
 
Pallad1um said:
Another thing that worries me: people are hoping that the fact that FIFA 14 wont be on the WiiU will benefit Pro Evolution Soccer. But Konami could launch a really mediocre product and people will still buy it, because there's no alternative.
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Markets where the only option is a poor product lead to other companies coming in with a better product.

For years ISS / PES was the better football game, because it had to concentrate on mechanics to make up for the lack of the official licence.

If Konami release a shitty football game that has no licence to sell it, someone else will release a better one. It's not like they'd be scared off by the big money officially licenced version.
 
Every platform holder needs every publisher. Just accept this much as fact. You wouldn't turn down incentives to get people using your product nor should you be happy with said incentives drying up one after the other.

With EA also monopolizing sports titles at current, that's a pretty big blow for Nintendo unless they feel like stretching their talent pool to develop sports titles that can compete. At that point though, what's the point when Joe Gamer is going to go for Madden/Fifa/Live/Woods 14 because of brand establishment and wider availability over Nintendo Sports?
 
Yes, I'm quite sure Nintendo will do fine without Doodbro Generic Shooter of the Week, piffy nonsense like Fifa (Like Pro Evo, the better of the two, will not come out on Wii U) and Origin shitting up their net structure.
 
Conan-san said:
Yes, I'm quite sure Nintendo will do fine without Doodbro Generic Shooter of the Week, piffy nonsense like Fifa (Like Pro Evo, the better of the two, will not come out on Wii U) and Origin shitting up their net structure.
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Nintendo has shit up their own network structure pretty well, to be honest.
 
The world doesn't need EA.
Sometimes I want to puke when thrift-stores just have piles of old EA sports games. The Mega Drive is the worst offender.
 
It really makes no difference to me. I'm not into buying the same football game over and over each year, so I'm all set with that and I really can't think of anything else that EA could provide that I'll miss.

With that said, I know sports games are huge and it's definitely a bummer for those fans who enjoy them.
 
Depends what Nintendo wants to be, or where the goalposts are for them.

If they wanted to be that catch-all platform, 'one platform to rule them all', that some seemed to hope Wii U could be, then yes, absolutely they need them.

If they want to be a more niche platform primarily driving Nintendo software, then no, they don't need them. But even then it is a bit damaging.
 
Foffy said:
Nintendo has shit up their own network structure pretty well, to be honest.
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I hear this a lot but I have no idea what people are talking about. Have you used a Wii U? The online aspect seems (to me anyway) to work just the same and just as well as the online aspect of the PS3. I don't have a 360 so I don't know how the Wii U compares to that.
 
Well Nintendo can survive without EA but they won't get far. Sales would probably be Gamecube levels rather than 360 or ps3 levels if EA withdrew all support.
 
Has EA ever been a real part of the Nintendo lineup? Like, weren't all the EA sports games better on the Genesis?

Personally it doesn't matter to me, as EA has no games I'm interested announced and no franchises I really care about. I don't really think there's a ton of crossover between people who buy EA games, sporty or otherwise, and people who buy Nintendo games anyway. If there was, EA would be making Wii U games regardless of how beefy or not the hardware is. Hell, if the Wii U manages to defy the odds and turn into a real sales powerhouse (hypothetically) EA will start making games for it, no matter what they're saying now.
 
Nintendo has never needed EA. Not in the past, not now and of course not in the future.

Has EA ever released a high-profile game focused on a Nintendo console?
 
No.

Because Nintendo will sell tens of millions of WiiU's over time, and then EA will want to publish games on the platform.

Nintendo can sell platforms and games without EA, but EA cannot sell those extra units without Nintendo.

EA need Nintendo, more than Nintendo needs EA.


Just not at the moment, because Nintendo have not sold enough units
 
I am baffled how people can think they don't.

EA's market share is massive. If they release no content, it's a huge slice of the pie Nintendo has 0 revenue from. 0.

And at the highest level, it's immensely damaging from a perception standpoint.
Even if Nintendo consumers don't actively buy every EA game, NO platform holder wants the stigma of 'what, this can't even play EA games on it?' - that's a nightmare to overcome for your average buyer, it adds an opportunity cost to the actual hardware cost that is really steep for most.
 
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