EA will reconsider its Wii U support if the console sells more, says you shouldn’t count Nintendo out
A few outlets have been asking Nintendo about third-party support over the past few days. One publisher in particular that has come up often is EA. But whenever these companies were mentioned, Nintendo typically said that an inquiry should be sent to the publisher.
Joystiq did exactly that with EA. The site caught up with EA Labels president Frank Gibeau to discuss Wii U and find out what it would take for the publisher to reconsider its Wii U support.
His response:
“Look, the only thing they can do to fix it is to sell more boxes. We’re a rational company, we go where the audience is. We publish games where we think we can make a great game and hit a big audience, and make money. That’s why we’re here, that’s why we have an industry.”
“The Wii U, we shipped four games. We shipped Madden, FIFA, Need for Speed and Mass Effect. In fact, the last Need for Speed shipped 60 days ago had a pretty good Metacritic. It was a good game. It wasn’t a schlocky port, we actually put extra effort into getting everything to work. And it’s just not selling because there’s no boxes.”
Gibeau added that EA will “jump back in” if the console “becomes a viable platform from an audience standpoint”.
“Nintendo is a good partner and never count ’em out and all that. Never count them out, but right now we’re focused on PS4 and Xbox One and from our perspective we’ll look at the Wii U, we’ll continue to observe it. If it becomes a viable platform from an audience standpoint, we’ll jump back in.”
