In an article at CVG, an anonymous EA source reveals that Nintendo’s strained relationship with EA was gone before it started, thanks to EA’s focus on games that only sell blockbusters. The article calls for many changes to be made at Nintendo, including modernizing their direction for their platforms and listening to what gamers want, rather than rehashing the same IPs over and over. It’s an interesting read, but one that will likely anger many of you, considering it recounts Nintendo’s recent failures with past failures and what Nintendo needs to do to change.
Regardless of whether you feel Nintendo is succeeding or failing, words from an anonymous EA source in the article make clear that Electronic Arts isn’t keen on supporting any platform that can’t produce massive sales.
“Nintendo was dead to us very quickly,” one EA source told me when asked about why the publisher fell out with Nintendo so soon after committing to the system.
“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”.
This is a symptom of big Western publishers and has been for years now, even with those that have supported the Wii U. Ubisoft continues to release Assassin’s Creed titles year after year and the same can be said for Activision with its annual Call of Duty releases. Is the serialization of games hurting third-party support for Nintendo? According to EA, the answer is yes.
