Topic: Wii U to miss out on 15 EA Games

[RarityGamer]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-05-08-wii-u-to-miss-out-on-15-ea-games-using-frostbite-engine-3
 
Another kick in the gut for the Wii U. It's only EA so I'm not too bothered, but it says they couldn't get the FB3 working on the Wii U. Makes me wonder if anyone else is having trouble...little worrying.

[Adrock]

So EA still hates Wii U and doesn't want my money. The world goes back to spinning...

[UltraClayton]

I think EA is just being a big baby and is not trying hard enough. If it works on 360/PS3 I can't imagine why it wouldn't work on Wii U. Ubisoft doesn't seem to mind.

[Pixelated Pixies]

This is actually starting to become comical, lol.

[ShyGuy]

EA is having a tough time. The official worst company in America laid off 900 people and are canceling 2013 games like Tiger Woods and NBA Live. The Deadspace franchise is also in a dead space, and they are not publishing another Crysis. They are also canceling there Sims and SimCity facebook games.

EA is cancelling anything that doesn't have a huge profit and not bringing their games to any platform were they won't have a chance to make a huge profit.

This is what happens when you don't cultivate your product line.

[Pixelated Pixies]

EA is having a tough time. The official worst company in America laid off 900 people and are canceling 2013 games like Tiger Woods and NBA Live. The Deadspace franchise is also in a dead space, and they are not publishing another Crysis. They are also canceling there Sims and SimCity facebook games.

EA is cancelling anything that doesn't have a huge profit and not bringing their games to any platform were they won't have a chance to make a huge profit.

This is what happens when you don't cultivate your product line.

 
 
such a bummer...
 
But at least they have Star Wars, right!?
 
*Cue John Williams*

[RarityGamer]

EA is having a tough time. The official worst company in America laid off 900 people and are canceling 2013 games like Tiger Woods and NBA Live. The Deadspace franchise is also in a dead space, and they are not publishing another Crysis. They are also canceling there Sims and SimCity facebook games.

EA is cancelling anything that doesn't have a huge profit and not bringing their games to any platform were they won't have a chance to make a huge profit.

This is what happens when you don't cultivate your product line.

While I agree with everything you said, I do wonder what Nintendo do to try and prevent this kind of 3rd party avoidance. I mean, another one has come out and said this now: http://pixelenemy.com/just-cause-devs-wii-u-dev-kits-collecting-dust-no-plans-to-develop-for-the-console/

At E3, when the Wii U was first shown, they stuck a video on with loads of companies praising the console. Some even announced games. Then, it all went quiet. I seem to remember some developers were claiming Nintendo had changed the hardware specs since they last met. Maybe they changed it too much and devs just couldn't or didn't want to work with it or something...
 
If this is going to happen again, one thing Nintendo must do I feel is invest. If they're not going to get the support, they need to keep pumping out the their own games. With the amount of money they made on the Wii, they should of at least invested some of it on new studios.

[Ian Sane]

Hey, remember around when Dead Space came out EA was seen in a relatively good light and Activision were the new bad guys?  That lasted, what, a year and a half?

EA's bizarre vendetta against Nintendo continues.  My only concern is if this affects the attitudes of other third parties or seriously affects sales.  This almost doesn't seen like new news though.  I pretty much assumed all future EA products would skip the Wii U.

[Adrock]

It's less bizarre when taking into account everything ShyGuy mentioned. There's a case to be made against bringing games over to Wii U considering how much the platform is currently struggling. Still, it's hard to deny that there are sour grapes. The whole Origin thing makes a lot of sense. Some of the things EA has said and done is cause for eyebrow raising.

[Ceric]

What gets me more then anything is they are just hiding under excuses.  Frostbite 3 if it can work on the PS3 or 360 it could work on the WiiU.  I don't know enough about the PS4 and NextBox to know.

EA just step out and say "We are not developing for the Wii U because its a platform that we don't think we could make the Margins that we need."  Fine, that's business.  Just don't give me bull excuses.

[Fjurbanski]

I wonder how much power EA actually has to make those claims. With some games, yeah, but what about the Star Wars games? Couldn't Disney tell them they had to release them on the Wii U? Disney's relationship with Nintendo isn't in the pits like EA's is, and we all know that Frostbite 3 not being able to run on Wii U is bs since it can run on the ps3/360.

[Adrock]

Regarding Frostbite 3, if it's CPU intensive, that might be where the issue lies since Wii U is apparently far more GPU centric. Perhaps it's not simply that Frostbite 3 can't run on Wii U period, but that it can't run without heavily optimizing it for the platform which certainly doesn't seem worth it all things considered. My understanding is when DICE ran some tests with "not too promising results," they didn't change anything to account for running on completely different hardware. Is it fair? Depends on how you look at it. They probably could have done a better job explaining why their tests yielded less than desirable results.

[pokepal148]

EA is cancelling anything that doesn't have a huge profit and not bringing their games to any platform with a fanbase they haven't completely screwed over with DLC

[Ceric]

Regarding Frostbite 3, if it's CPU intensive, that might be where the issue lies since Wii U is apparently far more GPU centric. Perhaps it's not simply that Frostbite 3 can't run on Wii U period, but that it can't run without heavily optimizing it for the platform which certainly doesn't seem worth it all things considered. My understanding is when DICE ran some tests with "not too promising results," they didn't change anything to account for running on completely different hardware. Is it fair? Depends on how you look at it. They probably could have done a better job explaining why their tests yielded less than desirable results.

If a Graphics Engine is CPU intensive in this day and age your doing it wrong.

[Spak-Spang]

This just goes to show that the cost of gaming is getting to the point that any additional development to move to another format is not going to happen.  EA's execs do no want to take those risks.  But is also means that EA pushes only using Frostbite then Nintendo may be screwed...and since EA is an incredibly important publisher for the US.  (Sports games and FPSers are quite huge here) then Nintendo's WiiU is in trouble.  The problem is, Nintendo can still bring the games by the end of the year, but with all this bad press and such, quality Nintendo games are not going to bode well. 

This is another reason I believe Nintendo should have been much more aggressive with the VC launch.  Get everything out there.  Make people see it as a reason to buy Nintendo now...and not potentially buy it.

[Luigi Dude]

This just goes to show that the cost of gaming is getting to the point that any additional development to move to another format is not going to happen.  EA's execs do no want to take those risks.  But is also means that EA pushes only using Frostbite then Nintendo may be screwed...and since EA is an incredibly important publisher for the US.  (Sports games and FPSers are quite huge here) then Nintendo's WiiU is in trouble.  The problem is, Nintendo can still bring the games by the end of the year, but with all this bad press and such, quality Nintendo games are not going to bode well. 

When the Wii was having record sales, most EA games still sold the worst on the system.  Seriously, not having EA support isn't going to really effect Nintendo much since the people who buy Nintendo systems aren't buying them for EA games.

[Ian Sane]

Seriously, not having EA support isn't going to really effect Nintendo much since the people who buy Nintendo systems aren't buying them for EA games.

I remember in the N64 days it was like the lack of third party support was an annoyance you put up with.  Most of us were familiar with the previous generations and now doing without Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Castlevania, etc was a bummer that we would get through.  There were the mindless fanboys that acted like third party games were crap because Nintendo was training them to think that way but it wasn't the majority.  But now it seems that Nintendo has had crappy third party support for so long that no only is it expected but it has created a fanbase that has conditioned themselves to ONLY liking Nintendo games.  And that makes sense because most people that care about good third party support would have given up on Nintendo long ago (hell the Wii was pretty much my breaking point).  So you get Nintendo diehards that pretty much only care about Nintendo and gamers with broader tastes that see Nintendo consoles as a secondary machine you buy just for Nintendo games.
 
So Nintendo is pretty much permanently fucked on this third party thing because they dragged their feet on fixing it for so long that the market now expects it and reacts accordingly.  That really sucks.  They could have and should have put all this nonsense behind them on the Gamecube.

[Fjurbanski]

If Frostbite 3 is so CPU intensive, then wouldn't they have issues running it on the PS4 as well? Last I heard the PS4's CPU wasn't anything to right home about.

[smallsharkbigbite]

If Frostbite 3 is so CPU intensive, then wouldn't they have issues running it on the PS4 as well? Last I heard the PS4's CPU wasn't anything to right home about.

The PS4 is rumored to cost $500+.  The CPU rumor is wrong.  They are moving from the Cell, but it will be a strong CPU.  When has Sony ever skimped on hardware?  People get too hung up in a speed #.  Architecture has changed dramatically and it will be a nice CPU.  It's like a 2003 Pentium 4 went up to 3.8 ghz, and today the fastest I7 processor goes about 3.8 ghz.  Do you think they are comparable?  Not so much. 


They are putting a huge amount of RAM into it and basically making it a PC so ports are easy.  EAs excuse for the Wii U is they need a dedicated team to develop for the Wii U.  Xbox is basically developing a PC as well.  This is the risk of going early.  Wii U should have went with an OS that was basically a PC. 

[Kytim89]

EA will never get my money again unless it is through the second hand market.

[Adrock]

EA will never get my money again unless it is through the second hand market.

Charles what now? Do you know how the second hand market works? No publisher gets a dime off of used games. That's why they've turned to online passes and such to try to get some profit off of those sales.

[Kytim89]

EA will never get my money again unless it is through the second hand market.

Charles what now? Do you know how the second hand market works? No publisher gets a dime off of used games. That's why they've turned to online passes and such to try to get some profit off of those sales.

That is the idea: they still will not get my money even when I buy their games used.

[BlkPaladin]

If Frostbite 3 is so CPU intensive, then wouldn't they have issues running it on the PS4 as well? Last I heard the PS4's CPU wasn't anything to right home about.

The PS4 is rumored to cost $500+.  The CPU rumor is wrong.  They are moving from the Cell, but it will be a strong CPU.  When has Sony ever skimped on hardware?  People get too hung up in a speed #.  Architecture has changed dramatically and it will be a nice CPU.  It's like a 2003 Pentium 4 went up to 3.8 ghz, and today the fastest I7 processor goes about 3.8 ghz.  Do you think they are comparable?  Not so much. 


They are putting a huge amount of RAM into it and basically making it a PC so ports are easy.  EAs excuse for the Wii U is they need a dedicated team to develop for the Wii U.  Xbox is basically developing a PC as well.  This is the risk of going early.  Wii U should have went with an OS that was basically a PC. 

It is a powerful CPU, but it is a similar CPU to what the Wii U and the new Xbox will have. They will all have 1.xxghz OOE CPU and rely on the GPU for processing power.  So if they are have trouble getting the engine working on the Wii U they will have problems the PS4/Xbox. But since they are not, as far as rumors go, so it is just excuses.

All three console have similar architectures, so if you make a game for the PS4/Xbox you should be able to put it on the Wii U if you have any experience as a PC developer. Most game develop for the PC work on a wider power difference then what is exhibited between the three new console (according to rumors). Which makes EA claims even more flimsy.

[ShyGuy]

AMD x86-64 Jaguar with 8 cores. Rumored to run at 1.6ghz.

[Adrock]

It is a powerful CPU, but it is a similar CPU to what the Wii U and the new Xbox will have.

Do we even know this yet? Doesn't the PS4 have more cores and more threads per core?

All three console have similar architectures

I thought they were completely different architectures. Nintendo continued to use a custom PowerPC CPU while Sony switched to an X86-64 CPU with Microsoft rumored to be switching as well.