A rumor has been spreading on the web that suggests publisher EA and Nintendo tried to work out a deal for Wii U online component. Reportedly, Nintendo was in talks with several third parties to improve the Wii U’s online capabilities, and EA was one of them. However, the talks broke down when EA wanted all of Wii U’s online network — including the Nintendo Network — to be run through its Origin system. As expected, Nintendo walked out of the negotiations after such outrageous demands by EA.
The deal EA wanted would see all of Nintendo’s online services and net code be run through Origin, which isn’t known for being the most stable online service out there. In case you aren’t familiar with Origin, the online service works like Steam, just not as good. Origin has been criticized left and right over the past year for all sorts of reasons, including invasion of user privacy, removing users’ legal rights, and false user bans.
Because of the deal falling through, EA’s support for the Wii U console dwindled, and instead of supporting the console with lots of titles, EA is so far bringing only three games to the Wii U: Madden NFL 13, Mass Effect 3, and FIFA 13. The rumor also mentions that EA has no intentions of really supporting the Wii U in the future, and will only release ports of other titles without any real budget. This appears to be the case with Madden NFL 13, which was recently revealed to be missing key features on the Wii U version.
Via Reddit
