EA Confirms Major Wii Support

Electronic Arts has confirmed they are 100% committed to the Nintendo Wii, reports Gamasutra. The largest game publisher in the U.S. has revealed six games currently in production for the console, which is scheduled to launch sometime in the Fall. From the article: "The EA statement on the matter comments: 'Each title will remain true to the hallmarks of its franchise but is being designed to maximize the power of the Wii hardware and take full advantage of the uniqueness and innovation of its one-of-a-kind controller.'"

Sports Games

[TripHammer]

EA's sports titles on the Wii-mote sounds excellent to me. If they implement the analog control well, it might become the preferred platform for sports games. Seeing these titles excel on the Wii should boost Nintendo's street cred.

No original IPs

[scrabbleguy]

It seems FTA that none of the six titles are original though. They are all new versions of old franchises and multiplatform titles (like The Godfather.) It's a little bit disappointing that we're not seeing more original works.

Wii all the way for us

[SydShamino]

Even if I don't like EA as a company, everything I hear makes me feel that a Wii (and neither a 360 or PS3) is the way for us to go for this next generation, in terms of games options, fun, innovation, and of course cost. And this comes from a family that now has just a PS2 + PC games.

Other than the "poorer" graphics (intentional quotation marks), what bad stuff *has* come out about the Wii? Anything?

"true to its fanchise"?

[numbski]

Translation - they're all going to be sequels. No original content from us. We're EA, what did you expect?

Re:Did Hell Freeze Over?

[Valthan]

RFTA and tell me that changing the whole mechanics of a game is no innovation. They could have done what they normally do and just re-release it, same controls and all, they don't need to support the motion sensor of the Wiimote, last I checked it still has buttons to play games as well.

Re:Wii all the way for us

[Dr. Eggman]

Its new name.

Re:Did Hell Freeze Over?

[CaymanIslandCarpedie]

You realize that to the game it doesn't matter if your twirling an analog stick, mashing a d-pad, or pressing the "Y" button. To the game its just input signals. Choosing to have a player pass the ball in Madden via moving the Wii controller instead of pressing a button is roughly the same amazing inovation on the games part as having the player pass via pulling one of the triggers instead of pussing a button. Nintendo had a lot of work to do getting the controller to work, but for the game developers its just deciding which input signal will trigger which events. About as exciting an innovation as if they changed an event from being triggered via the "Y" button to now use the "X" button.

Re:Did Hell Freeze Over?

[AuMatar]

From an engine standpoint, yes. From a playing standpoint- no. Pointing and moving the controller are entirely new control techniques for the player, using them as gameplay elements is innovation.

And the control's the thing

[Crash Culligan]

EA's sports titles on the Wii-mote sounds excellent to me. If they implement the analog control well, it might become the preferred platform for sports games. Seeing these titles excel on the Wii should boost Nintendo's street cred.

A lot of people are talking about EA "dropping the ball" by just introducing the same old crud on the Wii that they've introduced on every other platform, and that people won't want to buy the same games all over again. They're mostly correct, but they're not taking one thing into account: the wiimote.

Yes, the games are the same old thing they've had on many platforms before, but this would be its first time on the Wii. The control scheme is an important part of the game no matter what platform it's on, and if the control scheme is sufficiently different on the Wii (that is, if they use the fancy new control to its fullest), then people will buy it that all important one more time. And if it does really well, the Wii will become a choice platform for certain types of games over the PS3 and X360.

Re:"true to its fanchise"?

[MaestroSartori]

Yeah, because the first thing you'll think when you make a game that sells loads is "Ahh, now I've done that I never need to do it again and make even more money with a product people obviously want!"

What people should really be objecting to is crappy sequels, not sequels themselves. Whether EA's sequels are always crappy is very much a matter of opinion, I quite like some of them. And enough people buy them to keep those sequels at the top of the retail charts for a long, long time.

Please sir, may I have another?

[Anthony Boyd]

EA is reknown for treating employees less than fairly. And I don't really like many of their games. But strong 3rd-party support is something that Nintendo has been lacking, and this helps to dig them out of the hole just a little bit.

If Nintendo could get similar statements from other big companies, it would do so much for their prospects. I would really like to see Blizzard, Bioware, and Obsidian doing Wii games. I respect their PC games, and I think they could help to up the ante.

Also, I'm starting to get excited about Nintendo's new console for a different reason. People have struggled with RTS console games [penny-arcade.com], due to the controllers. But couldn't the Wiimote work similar to a laser pointer? If so, wouldn't that open up some better control mechanisms for RTS console games?

-Tony

Re:"true to its fanchise"?

[Edgewize]

Yeah. I'm tired of sequels too. Lets destroy all copies of The Empire Strikes Back, and burn all the comic books after #1 of any series.

George Bernard Shaw said that there are only two stories. Should we stop writing books because they borrow from old themes?

Just because something presents a familiar CONCEPT doesn't mean that it can't still be original in its execution.

Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA

[Chris Burke]

He says the controller now is about as exciting as analog joypad input - can't really imagine going without it but nothing you really are thinking about when you use it everyday.

Sounds perfect. I wouldn't want it any other way. Any other way would imply that the controller was difficult to get used to. Just like the first use of an analog controller in Mario 64 seemed weird and exciting just on its own, pretty soon I got used to it and was more interested in how I could make mario run around than specifically thinking about the analog controller.

If the result of the Wii is that in the subsequent generation people consider motion-sensitive 3D-positioned controls to be both as fundamental and mundane as analog joysticks are today, then I don't think you could call it anything but a smashing success.

If EA is in...

[Anonymous Coward]

While EA may not have a great track record for orginality, they are still an industry heavyweight.

This means that if EA is supporting the Wii, other big publishers will most likely step up and offer titles as well. This leads to more AAA titles and (hopefully) more innovative games that will truly make use of the Wii-mote.

There are hundreds of crap games for every Starcraft / Sims / Civ out there, afterall.

Re:No surprise there.

[masklinn]

Come on Sega could make a new hardware platform and EA would make a few games for it.

EA didn't actually port any game to the DreamCast... so no.

Not that this was a bad thing for the DC though.

Re:This seals it.

[rev063]

But why would the Wii controller need more buttons, even for an EA game? That's the whole *point* of the Wiimote -- rather than having a zillion buttons to map to the various actions in the game, you use gestures of the controller itself. If it works out, playing games should be more like playing sports: easy to pick up, but with practice of the gestures comes mastery.