EA source on Wii U: “Nintendo was dead to us very quickly”
When Nintendo unveiled Wii U during E3 2012, EA was one of the first publishers to pledge support for the console. Following the system’s actual launch, however, it didn’t take long for the relationship to sour.
EA put out a trio of games for Wii U’s launch – two sports titles and a port of a slightly old game in Mass Effect 3 – and then called it a day. You can attribute EA’s abandonment to a few things: poor sales of its own games, poor sales of the Wii U, and more.
One EA source speaking with CVG says that the Wii U also “became a kids IP platform and we don’t really make games for kids.” “Nintendo was dead to us very quickly,” the unnamed person said.
“Nintendo was dead to us very quickly. It became a kids IP platform and we don’t really make games for kids. That was pretty true across the other labels too. Even the Mass Effect title on Wii U, which was a solid effort, could never do big business, and EA like Activision is only focused on games that can be big franchises”.
