EA expands Nintendo focus, announces TWO MySims games for Wii/DS
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Jan 7th 2009 at 10:28AM }
MySims Party promises to turn any gathering into an "instant party" by offering -- wait for it -- a variety of minigames to play with. Shake the Wii Remote to partake in 50 minigames, ranging from snowboarding to dancing. The DS version will feature 40 stylus-powered minigames. 2K Games also created a similarly innovative title, which sold over a million copies.
In addition to the wildly innovative MySims Party, EA has another sure-fire hit on its hands. Nintendo fans will absolutely adore MySims Racing. We don't want to spoil the game's unique offering, so we placed that trailer after the break.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JetPogi @ Jan 7th 2009 10:39AM
the actors make the most out of it and it looks fun, until you get tired of it anyway.
Pureshooter @ Jan 7th 2009 10:40AM
Wii, DS, Sims franchise
The shovelware holy trinity.
Wiinterfang @ Jan 7th 2009 10:50AM
You can't talk **** about the DS, isn't that like ilegal or something?
Pureshooter @ Jan 7th 2009 2:04PM
I love the DS, and the Wii is also a nice little system, if a little overpriced. I just hate how the good titles are drowned in a sea of mediocrity.
Tiptup300 @ Jan 7th 2009 1:56PM
To be fair, the racing game looks like a total copy of DK64, and theres nothing wrong with that.
inguaribile @ Jan 7th 2009 10:51AM
Good News :-)
Shagittarius @ Jan 7th 2009 11:08AM
You just saved a ton of money on your car insurance?
Godstine @ Jan 7th 2009 10:46AM
My Sims is actually kinda fun. It's also ridiculously cute.
At any rate, my 10 year old sister loves it. Not sure how it'll translate for party games, though.
ScottG13 @ Jan 7th 2009 10:51AM
For the demographics that own the Wii, these are great choices by EA. Probably not for me, but they should sell well.
Aero @ Jan 7th 2009 11:14AM
Why oh why did Mirror's Edge and Dead Space not sell well?
EA try to change but they are just going to be driven back to their old ways.
jackal @ Jan 7th 2009 11:37AM
Aero,
I don't know why Dead Space didn't meet sales expectations on the consoles (I know it sold poorly on the PC because it has some of the worst controls of all time without a compatible gamepad), but I could guess Mirror Edge's failure can be attributed to the "this game is really just too short to own" statement found in 95% of the reviews online. I know I wrote it off my PC checklist the moment I found out the game could be completed in less than 6 hour in one's first attempt (much, much faster with subsequent tries); the only people who are really looking forward to it are those that can try hardware based Physx acceleration (basically every Geforce 8 owner or above).
Snap Count @ Jan 7th 2009 11:37AM
My sentiments exactly. Although I never bought either, I do plan on picking these up in the next coming months. I have have COD5, Fable, Fallout and DLC for the two latter to get through first.
Blazur @ Jan 7th 2009 12:17PM
The games are great...but short. Certainly not worth retail without any multiplayer, if you ask me. Dead Space I beat in 4 afternoons and then had no desire to replay it so it went on Ebay.
And with knowledge of their intentions to make them a trilogy consumers might be less inclined to purchase the game knowing they're not getting the complete story.
Sami @ Jan 7th 2009 1:55PM
They are boring games, that's why.
The games press can hype boring games all they want, but they won't sell if they're not fun.
Tiptup300 @ Jan 7th 2009 1:58PM
Dead Space is just a whole lotta "Been There Done That", not too original IMO. The other one just felt frustrating.
Mabui @ Jan 7th 2009 11:37AM
I see they've discovered creativity doesn't pay the bills. Mini-game collection and Kart Racing game. I'm not exactly sure how well third party Kart games have done, though must be decent considering people still make them.
Mr Khan @ Jan 7th 2009 12:01PM
Generally, non-Nintendo Kart games have meant crap, with the last exception probably being Crash Team Racing
However, MySims has a great sales track record on Wii
Smurfy @ Jan 7th 2009 12:20PM
WE SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT MIRROR'S EDGE AND DEAD SPACE MORE, WHAT HAVE WE DONE!?!!
Sami @ Jan 7th 2009 1:51PM
The bitter tears of Joystiq
om nom nom
Nook @ Jan 7th 2009 2:24PM
That's a shame - IMO EA has done some good work towards changing their garbage chute and actually investing into properties...because it's true - the poor state of our fiat economic system is going to push EA right back to the 'bad' days. That's bad for us all. :(
My wife has the My Sims games for DS and Wii - not my cup of tea, but they do appear to be signifigantly less shitty than say...Sims 2...although Castaway looked okay. For the record I never played any of those, so I merely speak as an observer.
aristokrat @ Jan 7th 2009 2:26PM
I used to bemoan Wii shovelware, but I think I've just come to a realization. Perhaps we will have better (and maybe even more risky) "hardcore" games if companies like EA couple them with cash-in titles, offsetting the sales of Mirror's Edge with the sales of MySims. I'd rather ride the backs of the uninformed casuals into gaming bliss than watch companies cancel games or close down all-together. The real clincher would be then re-using some of the hardcore tech in casual games further down the line, trickling down the features so that the invested time is not lost.
cknblade @ Jan 7th 2009 4:35PM
Ah, but you explain why that wouldn't happen yourself. You say that MySims would cancel out Mirror's Edge, Dead Space Etc. But the fact is, even if the company still makes a profit, why should they continue to make games that ultimately do not make a profit? The only reason would be reputation, and the only consumer they would need reputation with would be the hard-core / average gamer, both of which would already be impressed with EA by them making those games. There isn't much potential for growth with these games, and they are ultimately more expensive to make than shovelware, with less of a profit, long term and short term. So from a business standpoint: Why bother?
aristokrat @ Jan 7th 2009 4:34PM
I considered that as well, but similar to the great video game collapse of the '80s, if casuals view a company like EA as one that also makes great hardcore games, maybe they will assume that it's mini-game fests will be of a higher caliber than ShovelWare Games Inc®. Additionally, hardcore games do provide additional revenue sources lately, such as movie righs and various other licensing deals that are harder to get with non-story based games. Plus, perhaps industry rep matters when it comes to getting licensing deals for making games from movies, I don't know. I think perhaps the NFL agreed to EA making all of its games because it thought EA was the strongest choice based on its reputation. The hardcore market will always be big enough to exist, look at the sales of Halo 3 or Fable 2. I'm just saying that I'm OK with companies continuing on with making shovelware if it means they can afford to take more risks for the hardcore segment.
ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Jan 7th 2009 4:25PM
I'm not counting on MySims to beat Mario at its own games and platforms.
Sami @ Jan 7th 2009 5:13PM
You know, MySims outsold several Mario games like Super Sluggers and Super Paper Mario. Mario Kart Wii is a phenomenon no doubt, but even if EA sells 1/10 of Mario Kart's sales, they'll be very happy with their profits. You see, even 1/10 of Mario Kart is more sales than Mirror's Edge and Dead Space - combined!
TracerBullet @ Jan 7th 2009 4:40PM
Well, "Party" seems fun but... Nascar Kart and now Sims Racing. Certainly there's space for racing games that are not Mario Kart clones out there.
Joeshie @ Jan 7th 2009 5:04PM
This is what the video game world has come to. A company goes to produce quality and innovative titles and they sell like shit. Now they are being forced to move to shitty shovelware to actually make money again.
Oh, how far the video game industry has fallen.
Sami @ Jan 7th 2009 5:19PM
Cry moar.
Dead Space and Mirror's Edge are bad titles, but there's a chance the new MySims will be bad too! We won't know until they're out.
The Fatass of Kickassness @ Jan 7th 2009 5:21PM
eh, what the hell are you talking about?
last i checked, ea makes shit-tons of money, and their ips usually sell very well.
are you just looking for an excuse to post the whole 'gaming is dying' argument? because, if anything, the last two years have shown that to be false.
Joeshie @ Jan 7th 2009 6:03PM
Man, you have some shitty taste in games Sami. Dead Space was an excellent game. Too bad you can't have good taste like some of us.
Also, EA has been hitting fairly hard times right now, no doubt partially from the economy, but also from the less-than-stellar sales of their new IPs. You can point to increased sales of video games all you want, but stronger video game sales do not necessarily point to a creatively healthy industry.
Madster @ Jan 9th 2009 7:29PM
So EA put out (ahem) two original innovative games out there and they sold badly, so they'll fall back on a spinoff of a sequel?
We really dropped the ball on that one, world.
Again.