EA: We'll develop for the NX "if it makes sense"

Source: Gaming Bolt, BBC

“I personally and the company are huge fans of Nintendo; they’re the reason why I started making games. We’re in constant communication with them and when they come to market [with] something…and if it makes sense for us, we’ll be there.”

Well, this doesn't give much hope for any EA support here. And honestly, I don't buy the "constant communication" because that sounds like the usual "unprecedented partnership" BS to me.

Sounds about right. What else are they supposed to say for a system that hasn't even officially been revealed yet?

LMAO. Its always hilarious when I read devs stating "I am a huge fan of Nintendo blah blah and some obtuse reason why they won't develop for the system".

EA's got a point. If it doesn't make dollars, it doesn't make sense.

But I thought 3rd party already have those developer's kit already did they not?

EA have said nothing that indicates that they don't have developer kits.

No EA or Activision will be a death sentence for the NX.

Buh buh cause FIFA and CoD are bashed in SW real world must be the same!!!

SW can bash them all they want, doesn't change the fact they sell like gangbusters.

It's beating around the bush, really.

All i know, Madden 13 on Wii U kinda sucks. Its also very lazy, it was asking me to type my email and all this shat on the screen. So i busted out the stylus to begin typing, but o no, these lazy motherfackers didnt even bother to let you use the stylus to type. You got to use the analog stick and A button.

And then i say fack it, im gonna roll with it anyways. I try to play the game and its has framing issues. I only payed bout $10 for the game and i still feel ripped off. And to think i was SO close to paying $49.99 to get it digital.

Just f off, EA. Still sour about Nintendo saying no to EA. Some of the biggest crybabies of this industry. How many years now? About 5 years I think. 5 years of crying just because Nintendo did not accept their Origins deal. Get real.

It has nothing to do with Origin. The reason why EA is being hesitant with supporting the NX is because of how bad the Wii U performed. You can't blame EA, or any other third party publisher to play the waiting game.

Can we shove in as much microtransactions and dlc as humanly possible?

EA is part of the reason why Wii U struggled. They should have released better games.

Unfortunately that would also be a consequence for a "modern" Nintendo given the trends everyone else is following. To allow things like this.

@nintendoboy16: Exactly, all these people saying "oh Nintendo aimed at kids, they need to modernize", that doesn't mean better games, it means a bunch of dick's with yatchs trying to take you for every penny possible.

God bless the children.

Assuming that the rumors are true, and NX is the the same ballpark as PS4/PSNeo/X1, 3rd parties need to just grow a pair and support the NX properly.

Yes, they got burned by the Wii U, but they also put zero effort into the year old ports they put on the platform, and then complained when people didn't buy them. Now sure, the Wii U wasn't as powerful as it could, and probably should have been, but it could have still at least have shared some of the games that launched on the 360 and PS3 that year, but they didn't even try to do that.

I'm not saying commit right away to a full partnership, but if they want their games to be successful on Nintendo platforms, which they must because they're always talking about wanting to support Nintendo, and it's literally just another avenue of profit for them, they need to put the same effort into the versions of their games that they put onto Nintendo platforms, as they do Sony and Microsoft's.

They can't keep using the tired old "Nintendo gamers only buy Nintendo games" line when 3rd parties rarely offer them games, and even rarer is it something worthy of their time and money.

Now sure, 3rd parties aren't solely to blame for this, Nintendo's hands are far from clean when it comes to this issue, but at this time their is only so much Nintendo can do. Their console is launching in less than a year, dev kits are going out to smaller developers like Mojang right now, so EA and other AAA developers and publishers must have had the kits for a bit by now. It's currently all on 3rd parties, they need to be the ones to take the next step.

Of course, if the NX is another under-powered, gimmick consoles like the Wii U was, that's more understandable, but the rumors out of Japan is that the system is good, easy to port to, and a quote taken from a Wallstreet Journal writer said he was shown an NX demo that could only run on PC's with “cutting-edge chipsets”. It's one thing to wait and see with another under- powered gimmick console, but if NX is really as good as this Wallstreet Journal writer claims, their should be no reason for them to avoid it, and it really sounds like they're shooting themselves in the foot and then complaining that they got shot.

Doesn't bode well for NX development. Shouldn't EA have a better idea of if this machine fits their business model if they have dev kits?

@shellcase86: They dont have a clue. Being the holder of the NFL license their number 1 goal should be delivering an NFL product to fans at a fair price. But its clear thats not their goal, their only concern is maximizing profits for short term gains. The NFL should remove the licence and give it to a more capable company who can better budget releases. Why millions of fans should have to suffer without an NFL game is insane.

@spike6958: I think it will be in the same ballpark as the PS4/PS4Neo.

Not if Nintendo takes the correct approach. NX isn't going to be a big success no matter what, but there are things that they can do for NXto put them back on track. Sorry to tell you this, but is extremely unlikely that NX will be Nintendo's final console no matter how it performs.

It's a waste of time to just make same multiplatform titles the XBO and PS4 get, instead make something unique, Nintendo needs to let EA have access to their IPs, encourage them to make something like a Nintendo themed NBA Jams, NFL Blitz and NHL Hitz and MLB Slugfest and such, but better because it'll use Nintendo IPs and won't require sports licensing costs. They'd just have to negotiate a revenue split. Do it EA.

Nothing unusual there. Nintendo dropped the ball hard with the Wii U. They didn't have their shit together. The marketing was awful, Nintendo grossly underestimated the resources necessary for HD development leading to massive delays, and they managed to make a piece of complicated hardware that nobody wanted to develop for., . If they screw up again out of the gate and the system tanks a month after launch, what would be the point in developing anything for it?

"Makes Cents"

And here I was assuming they'd develop games for a platform if it didn't make sense.

Interesting, very interesting.

Not like if you skip EA games youre missing much in the first place.

@davillain-: Agreed. It's a business people. Nintendo needs to wake up and realize other companies need to see profitability by working on their consoles

@True_Gamer_: In the real world people want to be entertained by games. Here, some people act like games must be always innovative and life changing. It's an entertainment industry.

As a gamer, sure, I give no fucks.

As a platform holder though, Nintendo better hope they have EA on their side.

..EA in constant communication with Nintendo..

EA: Hey Nintendo we want you to do this...

Nintendo: No...

EA: well screw you, no games for your NX then..

:P

Nintendo isn't dev friendly so I wouldn't expect 3rd party support

Well Nintendo better hope 3rd party games sell well on their console.

If they don't Wii U 2.0 = The NX (it'll sell worse either way).

Well considering the clusterfuck that was the Wii-U launch, wasn't that released with an unfinished SDK?

It's wise for other devs to wait and see before committing.

No, Nintendo is the reason why the Wii U struggled.

Nintendo will not release another home console after two consecutive flops. The NX has to do better than Gamecube numbers or else Nintendo will just double down on mobile.

Yeah? I beginning to think that EA's big E3 announcement for Mass Effect Andromeda is (1) it's an open world procedural generated seemingly endless universe to explore (2) it's gonna have huge online integration like Destiny meets The Division (3) it'll release on NX too.

That's what you think. Management has changed completely, but NX is still a product of the Iwata era. New management = new strategy. If NX fails, they'll likely just try something completely different based on new ideas (for Nintendo) before bowing out, unless going fully mobile was Kimishima's intention from the start. I highly doubt that they've set the 30-35 million floor that you've suggested, especially since going 100% mobile would require another gigantic restructure and they're still having trouble getting their shit together from the recent one.

Besides that, frankly, it's impossible to fix all of Nintendo's problems in one generation. They can't get back western third-parties with NX. It's 100% impossible, no matter what they do. Throwing money at third-parties is a short-term solution. I'm sure that they've realized this. Thus, they have two options for long-term survival as a company:

1. Cancel NX and become a software company now
2. Use NX to cultivate a more mainstream audience by making and buying exclusive games that appeal to the mainstream gamer, which will begin to draw third-party interest and put Nintendo's next console on their radar.

If their plan is focused on NX being a success above all else, it's already 100% guaranteed to flop and they should just drop it now and cut their losses. Sometimes you need to think beyond the short term as a company, and switching to mobile completely is the definition of a short-term-focused strategy. They'd ultimately just become more irrelevant than ever, and after 10 years they probably wouldn't even be considered a large company anymore. They'd be profitable, but they would not be Nintendo.

I feel like they said similar things about Wiiu... No?

Maybe if they released decent ports of games that aren't full priced months after the other versions got steep discounts their games would sell better. Surely they have some kind of market analysis employees that can put two and two together??

I'd prefer option 2. Option one, they may as well replace sepukku blades with revolvers.

I think they are far more worried about saying something that might accidentally reveal what NX is or violate some non disclosure clause about it. They have to be careful. You can't really expect any meaningful information to be gleaned from official channels before a console reveal.

Makes sense. EA isn't gonna make games for Nintendo consoles to be nice to Nintendo. They will do it if they get enough money from it.

Even though this sparks discussion on boards, it's a bit weird to make a thread about..

I agree w/ you regarding the NFL license. It's the one thing that irks me most about EA. NFL gaming was best when we had multiple companies in the mix. Gameday anyone?!

That stated, I'm still perplexed by their statement of "if it makes sense."

If it don't make dollars it don't make "cents".

It's really not that perplexing.

The NX has not been officially revealed, EA's current position is essentially "it does not make sense" to develop games for Nintendo platforms.

I'm sure EA has some early insights into the capability of the hardware, they may have even committed to a coupe of projects already. In fact, I'm almost certain that Nintendo will be aggressively courting them and all other 3rd parties (just like they did with Wii-U). But until the NX is revealed and any deals are announced (or at least "official"), what else can a 3rd party really say? Even if they say they are committed to NX, it would mean nothing... so I don't see how simply saying "we will develop games if it makes sense" is all the perplexing. Isn't "we will develop games for NX if it makes sense" basically just stating the obvious business reality of any platform?

It doesn't need to be the #1 console or sell 100 Million units, but if it's a distant 3rd place again then I am not sure how you can confidently say it won't be the final Nintendo console. I mean if it actually (somehow) did worse then Wii-U - then why the heck would they even bother? Yes, they may have 8 or $10 Billion in cash (or whatever it is now) - but if the consoles are struggling to reach 10 Million units they may as well light that cash on fire. Shareholders want a return, they don't want the companies cash lit on fire.

Hopefully Nintendo have come up with something that will position themselves a bit more competitively then the Wii-U did. Even a 30 Million seller should guarantee them another gen, if it's competitive. But a 10 or 15 Million seller and I'm not sure how another home console could be justified.

Unless this is a $99 microconsole, it's not going to sell 30 million. If that's the minimum for another gen, they shouldn't even try because there's too much working against NX for it to sell that much. These upgrades are the nail in the coffin there, since they clearly didn't see them coming and as a result NX is underpowered. They need to use NX to set the stage for the future. Focus on short-term success and that's all you'll ever get in the best case. They need to use NX to diversify their output and appeal to the wider gaming audience. If done right, they should sell around 25 million and have a more third-party-friendly demographic. From there, they could target Xbox and try to push them out of the market, and we could see a cool 40 million each gen going forward if they maintain it. Just paying off third-parties for ports won't get them anywhere.

Also, if Nintendo listened that closely to shareholders we wouldn't be having this conversation because Wii U would have been enough for them to bow out of consoles, and 3DS's drop compared to DS would have pushed them to mobile-only. This is what investors have wanted since the rise of mobile gaming.

If you honestly think Nintendo would be happy with another console that only pulls Gamecube numbers then you need to do more research my friend. Nintendo was very displeased with how the Gamecube performed sales wise, so why would that change if the NX didn't fare any better?

You are also correct in saying that if they expect the NX to sell 30+ million units they shouldn't even bother, because its not likely going to happen. Yes, Nintendo is still delusional, so don't act surprised.