EA says Wii software performance weaker than anticipated
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Nov 11th 2009 at 3:02PM } 
EA's John Riccitiello has got some 'splainin to do. Investors are bound to be frustrated with the video game publisher, which recently reported a net loss of $391 million, spurring a layoffs that affected more than a thousand employees. EA's decision to not be evil has seemingly backfired, with the company forced to focus on "core slate" games that can be iterated over and over again.
The CEO is also blaming poor sales of the publisher's Wii titles. "I think the Wii platform has been a little weaker than we had certainly anticipated," Riccitiello told investors during a conference call this week. "And there is no lack of frustration to be doing that at precisely the time where we have the strongest third-party share. We are building the products that I think the most highly rated on the platform and at this point in time, generating the most revenue of any third-party platform."
Certainly, no one can say EA hasn't been trying. Dead Space Extraction was praised by most critics, but managed a mere 9,000 units in first-month sales. "I really do think that the opportunity exists to find different ways to partner with first party in this case to sort of help establish in the minds of the consumer legitimacy of some of these other brands when they are going out," Riccitiello suggested, seeminlgy urging Nintendo to offer better support to third-parties that have been languishing on the Wii platform. Certainly, Nintendo can afford to share the wealth.
[Via gi.biz]
Source – Electronic Arts Q2 2010 Earnings Conference Call [PDF]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Cowboy Curtis @ Nov 11th 2009 3:06PM
Yea all the soccer moms skipped on that, nasty looking think with dead written on the box. Oh, true some like foot ball... I bet if they made Wii fit football or maybe Funtime with rabbits exercising in space..
Cowboy Curtis @ Nov 11th 2009 3:12PM
Gota love my typeO's, Thing.. Thing.. Coffee, coffee... More coffee..
Shadowfax (PSN: u2fan4894) @ Nov 11th 2009 3:08PM
Better headline: Wii hardware performance weaker than expected
kojo87 @ Nov 11th 2009 3:50PM
its almost 2010. that really isn't funny anymore.
Ridgecity @ Nov 11th 2009 4:06PM
I know! they should have already sold 100 million by this time! Nintendo FAIL!
And maybe EA should incorporate Miis into the sport games rather than actual players, like Nintendo World Cup Soccer for the NES...
Dreaded Fear @ Nov 11th 2009 3:09PM
If you want to sell games on the Wii, you need to either: make crap, or be Nintendo. Since EA is only putting half their effort into crappy games, their sales will obviously fall short.
Nigeria: Charmy Bee DF @ Nov 11th 2009 3:09PM
Go go, SimAnimals Africa. Time to save the day!
Shagittarius @ Nov 11th 2009 3:09PM
I wonder if I could find my comment on the article where EA said they were focusing on developing for the Wii and I said it would end in tears...
TrojanGuy @ Nov 11th 2009 4:48PM
Yeah, when they decided to focus on Wii, they should've abandoned making games for core gamers. If they really wanted to focus on Wii, they needed to make games that appeal to old people and kids. Just putting "real" games like Dead Space: Extraction on the Wii wasn't going to end well.
Corey Mills @ Nov 11th 2009 3:19PM
Awww, too bad EA. Maybe that's what you finally get for not supporting the Dreamcast!
Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 11th 2009 3:19PM
That's right. Karma is a bitch.
Dafrety @ Nov 11th 2009 9:57PM
Happy belated karma day!
halongw77 @ Nov 11th 2009 3:11PM
There are hardcore fans on the Wii but has there ever been a title on the Wii that's got me as excited as Halo 3 or Call of Duty MW2 or Uncharted 2 or Killzone 2 or Gears 2 or or or or... Dead Space Extraction? Cool but not even in the same league or fun factor as any of the mentioned games.
WhatIsThatThing @ Nov 11th 2009 3:25PM
That's a lot of sequels.
BrokenTriforce @ Nov 11th 2009 3:57PM
True, but Capcom is the undisputed king of sequels.
Does anybody know how many Street Fighter 2s they went through before they actually got to number 3?
Ridgecity @ Nov 11th 2009 4:11PM
you are talking about third party games, no Nintendo user cares that much about third party sequels. For years Nintendo lacked support from the industry and that made their followers avid fans of their stuff, most other games have no place in a Nintendo console for no one really cares.
And I consider myself a regular Nintendo user, there's the kind that owns every Nintendo product even if it's a drive cleaning kit and won't buy anything from anyone else, and despises non-original accessories...
Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 11th 2009 3:14PM
Why didn't he just say "Sales aren't what Wii hoped for?"
Cowboy Curtis @ Nov 11th 2009 3:20PM
You see Japan has been this way for years though, the ADD thing is big there.. Sales are down in Japan too. You know information overload. So, well.. They can only play games now in short spans. Thats why people there are playing mostly cellphone games. Now if EA made more games around exercising, or maybe rabbits. Now where did I put my coffee.. UP! Here it is.. Now what was I saying again?
Mr Khan @ Nov 11th 2009 3:17PM
I don't see why this is the case so much. Dead Space Extraction came out too late to really factor into this, EA Sports Active did well, Tiger Woods Golf did well, though they dropped the ball in a few key areas
1: Madden. It was widely understood that the differentiation that they created between the Wii version and others before (in the All Play branding) hurt them, not helped them. So what did they do? Differentiate further, make it *look* dumbed down, rather than just have a title that sounded dumbed down.
2: Boom Blox Bash Party: They didn't promote it nearly so much as the original, and didn't do enough to make it different enough from the original
3: Grand Slam Tennis. Not sure what they did wrong here, or whether it just wasn't meant to be.
Danny @ Nov 11th 2009 3:33PM
Mr Khan's limp wrist excuses only serve to make the delicious fail of the Wii platform to succeed outside exercise games all the better. Have fun with your watered down versions of real console games, including Dead Rising, Call of Duty, and Madden. You know why the Wii is struggling now? All the people who wanted one already have it and the games for it are seriously underwhelming. Dragon Age or Crystal Bearers? Hm...I wonder which one the average RPG player would choose. Fuck even a JRPG fan could see which one is better.
Stix Remix @ Nov 11th 2009 3:35PM
@Danny
Did you even read Khan's comment?
Alton Brown [ XBL: LordToastington] @ Nov 11th 2009 4:18PM
Sir, are you implying that JRPG fans are somehow dumber than WRPG players?
johnnynumber5 @ Nov 11th 2009 4:31PM
I think he meant that even someone who prefers JRPGs to Western RPGs would still choose Dragon Age. Not saying I agree ... but I think thats what he meant.
Alton Brown [ XBL: LordToastington] @ Nov 11th 2009 4:38PM
Ah.
guttertalk @ Nov 11th 2009 7:45PM
@Khan:
Excellent points, although I could see someone say, well, for the Wii, you have to get it just so. But I think your points suggest that companies like EA don't really know what to do with the Wii because of the diverse demographics. As my wife (a non-gamer) said about Rock Band: Beatles, "That's how companies should do it--make a game that can hook Mom, but still be fun for the kids." That's not the same as dumbing a game down: it means designing a game well.
Also, I think one problem is that third-parties haven't done well on the Nintendo consoles and haven't established the franchises that Nintendo has (or that these companies have on Sony and MS consoles).
MySims did decently, given that it was a new spin on an established franchise (although it seemed dumbed down). RE 4 did well because it was a deep game that had already a good rep and a known franchise.
Rather do unmemorable one-shot titles, these publishers have to look at the long haul, too. EA really did very little for the Gamecube, so they were almost starting from scratch on the Wii. Build a brand. It's what they do on the Sony and MS platforms. It's no different. And avoid insulting people . . . that usually helps.
GhostofGrendel @ Nov 11th 2009 3:18PM
What did EA think was going to happen? Did they look at the install base and sales figures and think they were going to slap together some half ass games and make a killing on the Wii? The Wii was the perfect storm so to speak. It became the hot thing to have just because people had never seen motion controls before and it was fun to play. The media jumped on it, created a firestorm and it became a media darling after being declared it the hottest product you could own. Unfortunately people quickly discovered that the novelty of motion controls wears off after a few months. "Waggling" your controller in Super Mario Galaxy got older even faster. Even my kids hardly play it any more. We have guitar hero for the wii but the prefer to play it on the 360. When we bought it the Wii was the hottest thing around, you couldn't even get onc off of a store shelf. The core games are great; Zelda, Mario ect. but a large percentage of people who own them are older adults or women who will never buy a game for it other than Wii Sports. EA lost on the Wii bet.
ducttapeBigSexy (PSN&XBL: ducttape12) @ Nov 11th 2009 3:23PM
I think you hit the nail on the head. The people I know who own a Wii only bring it out when people are around, and even then, they only really play Wii Sports and maybe Guitar Hero III. And, they're not going to buy more games because they don't really like playing video games.
It's been my thought all along - sure, Nintendo, you'll make piles of cash now, but once the Wii fad dies, you'll realize the core gamers who you could always rely on to buy products will have migrated to 360 or PS3.
BrokenTriforce @ Nov 11th 2009 3:36PM
Hopefully by then Ninty has made enough money that they can develop a console that competes with PS4 and Xbox1080.
Not saying the Wii sucks, but its like half a generation behind the competetion in EVERY aspect.
commonperson @ Nov 11th 2009 4:11PM
See the thing is this, they didn't. They actually created some quality games for the Wii (Dead Space Extraction as a case in point) the problem is, the Wii is a really screwed up platform. The only games that seem to sell are First Party properties and even then not for sure. With it's huge install base there's little in the way of application penetration and unless you are making shovelware games it's really not worth while to even invest in that market. They looked at the install base and thought "if we can bring qualitiy games to this platform we'll be golden." Unfortunately their version of quality games isn't what the Nintendo public is buying. The sad thing is EA has been working really hard at reinventing it's self and it looks like that's over. We're going back to the same old EA, and between them and the "new" Activision it's a bleak world indeed.
NOT ME @ Nov 11th 2009 4:24PM
Its not completely about the games being half assed. 9000 in the 1st week on console that sells more than the other two by far is a huge sign of what nintendo want and dont want. People forget that it takes extra money and effort to make a wii game. which in this case i dont see why they bothered considering the fact that they said that sales for this and mirrors edge were disappointing, so why put the time and resources into making a wii version. Hell if by some chance games like uncharted or halo could be made on the wii they wouldnt sell as well either. Im pretty sure most if not all of the hardcore gamers that initially bought wii have bought a ps3 or xbox by now....so all that leaves you with are the casuals(and the nintendo fans).....and they arent really interested in games like dead space or halo.
Ridgecity @ Nov 11th 2009 4:25PM
Ducttape:
you gotta be kidding with the fade thing, it's full steam rolling the xbox360 with the massive support it has from the blogs and easily killed the playstation brand.
Third party never sell well, if their product doesn't even resemble Nintendo or it's exclusive. remember Resident Evil 4? amazing exclusive game. EA Sports Active, lame exclusive game that sold amazingly well. Madden and Fifa? oh you mean the one for xbox? nah, I don't plan to get it.
even with the shitty motion controller and "total lack of games" they ripped the big guys a new one.
SoshiKitai @ Nov 11th 2009 6:59PM
Sorry ducttape, let me correct you...
"It's been my thought all along - sure, Nintendo, you'll make piles of cash now, but once the Wii fad dies, you'll realize that you finally have time to roll in said pile of cash."
Johnathan @ Nov 11th 2009 3:19PM
No shit! That sure was unexpected
B3astofthe3ast @ Nov 11th 2009 3:20PM
Once again, Nintendo is the one carrying the system with it's incredible 1st party games, the fact of the matter is Nintendo is too good of a competitor on their own console. This saved them during the N64 and GCN era, but is now working against them in the Wii era.
DBuck_Eye @ Nov 11th 2009 3:22PM
My are there a lot of Nintendo Offense force members here. It's weird that the people who hate Nintendo are more interested in commenting on articles about Nintendo than the Nintendo fanboys.
Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 11th 2009 3:24PM
"EA" says....
This is an EA article...
Mr. Fister @ Nov 11th 2009 3:53PM
There really aren't that many dedicated Nintendo fans on Joystiq. The ones that are on here are fairly smart (Mr. Khan and Samfish, for instance), but there's still way more 360/PS3 fans on here than there are Wii/DS fans.
Although I'll take quality over quantity when it comes to fans, anyday.
Cody @ Nov 11th 2009 4:09PM
@ Mr. Fister
Well said!
NOT ME @ Nov 11th 2009 4:26PM
which weird considering how many wiis are out there compared to the other 2 consoles
matias @ Nov 12th 2009 10:21AM
I'm a Nintendo fan, but I think is pointless trying to say something pro-Nintendo (or something else than Hardcore games are teh shit!!1!11 and that the wii is a waggling fest) here when you're probably going to get downvoted or insulted.
d1srupt0r @ Nov 11th 2009 3:24PM
And I thought the term " Wii-formance " was only used when people talked about Wii Music.
Nook @ Nov 11th 2009 3:27PM
So.....it's news to these investors that the casual gamer base can be viewed as kind of a "turbo boost" - massive expansion then ....begins to fizzle out. There's a window there where you should be converting those casuals into the intermediate or more hardcore gamer groups.
It's also news to these investors that if they had instead greenlighted including a real FPS mode in dead space, in addition to the on rails mode (Which is EXACTLY what MoH:H2 Wii did, only FPS mode was default, EA also published this game) that they may have sold more copies to the more 'core' gamers?
I would have bought deadspace if it was FPS, and when I first started playing games, they were more the casual type of experience, Centipede, Frogger - would play those games with my family. We were casual gamers, then my mom brought home Zelda. Then some of us became something else other than casual.
See a pattern in there anywhere EA? ANYWHERE?
If not, I'm available for hire and will accept far less than whatever you're paying the 'big wig' right now.
CaramelZappa @ Nov 11th 2009 3:29PM
Haven't we known for a few years that third party games just don't sell that well on the wii, and that wii owners in general tend to buy less games than 360/PS3 owners?
BrokenTriforce @ Nov 11th 2009 3:30PM
Other EA games what? I thought they only made Madden and the Sims.
The question on my mind is...
Did EA not play Twilight Princess? Dead Space Extraction could have been a great 3rd person action game.
But EA got lazy. On-rails? It didn't work for House of the Dead Overkill, and it hasn't worked in video games since 1995. Maybe since losing so much money EA will finally make games better to get some back.
B3astofthe3ast @ Nov 11th 2009 3:32PM
It did work for Killer-7. One of the more original, if not disturbing games I've played.
BrokenTriforce @ Nov 11th 2009 3:38PM
But Killer 7 however is a cult classic (which I enjoyed playing)... Dead Space is pretty much a mainstream title. Mainstream means its gotta be like all the others out there the be cool.
Extraction sticks out of the crowd that that's bad for it.
johnnynumber5 @ Nov 11th 2009 3:32PM
Aren't most 3rd party sales on the Wii typically very low compared to what PS3 & 360 games sell? What I'm asking: Isn't it pretty common knowledge that it's easier to sell 3rd party games on the PS3 & 360 than it is on the Wii? Most of the Wii gamers want something that has Mario on the cover or the word "Wii" in the title (Wii play, Wii Fit etc).
Cody @ Nov 11th 2009 4:12PM
You could say the same thing in regards to 1st party Wii games being better than and selling more than 1st party 360/PS3 games.
Like Lady Gaga and her penisvagina, It goes both ways.
johnnynumber5 @ Nov 11th 2009 4:27PM
Thats a good point and I think it demonstrates the dichotomy between the platforms and their relative sales. A 3rd party company has as much chance of success on the PS360 as the first party companies where as on the Wii they have a much lower chance of success at retail compared to the first party titles. Actually, I think that really echoes the sentiment of my original post: Most Wii gamers want to buy games with Mario on the cover or with Wii in the title. You don't have that sort of brand loyalty issue with the PS360 install base.
So, what we have is a good thing for Nintendo and a less than good thing for 3rd party developers and publishers.
samfish [wants to know: do midgets have night vision?] @ Nov 11th 2009 4:29PM
"Most of the Wii gamers want something that has Mario on the cover or the word "Wii" in the title (Wii play, Wii Fit etc). "
That should tell third parties that Wii owners respond to brand identity well, too. Resident Evil games, anyone?
That makes sense, too, since third parties have done nothing to grow the more 'casual hardcore' audience on tthe Wii. The ones who are there are obviously reacting to what they recognize.
Basically, the smart thing to do with the Wii would be to essentially start over and treat it like they would any console launch...put some big name titles on it and go from there. THEN they can start putting out these smaller budget, spin off type games and expect to see greater profitability from them.
And if that fails...fine. I was wrong and so were a bunch of other people who want great games to play on the Wii. Most Wii owners don't buy games not because they're these low budget, no name or spin-off titles...they just don't goddamn buy games because they only want Mario and Zelda games.