Famicom Dojo Podcast: An Unprecedented Partnership

by Sean "TheOrange" Corse, filed in Famicom Dojo Podcast, Podcasts on May.24, 2013

Famicom Dojo 74: Unprecedented Partnership

EA has thrown its stake in the ground, and determined that it does not need or care to support Nintendo on the Wii U. No Frosbite engine, no current development on Wii U, and a senior developer who openly tweeted that Nintendo’s console platform was “crap”. So much for that “unprecedented partnership”! Vinnk and Sean make the obvious comparisons to Dreamcast (which was the last console EA totally shut out), speculate on the future of proprietary, company-branded game console hardware, and try to determine if Nintendo even needs EA in this generation… or any other.

Leave your own voicemail at 608-492-1923, or just share your thoughts in the show notes at FamicomDojo.TV:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/74

“RPG” theme song by the Imari Tones:
http://imaritones.net

Bring home your own copy of the Famicom Dojo Season 1 DVD today:
http://famicomdojo.tv/store/fdojos1.php

Tags: Dreamcast, EA, EA Sports, Metroid, Nintendo, Sega, Unity, Wii U

uglyjoe

“I’m not gonna miss EA. If Activision left too, I wouldn’t miss them.”

Yeah, my sentiments exactly. I’m not bitter or anything, I simply don’t care about the games that they publish.
William Talley

Sorry folks but without EA and activation’s support, that’s a huge chunk that’s missing from the Wii U library. Like it or not, there are people who want to play Madden, Call of Duty, and even The Sims on the Wii U. Nintendo is no doubt going to be feeling this loss, especially since with 2K games possibly not bringing anything over to the Wii U this year, this basically means there will be no sports titles on the Wii U. Shame as well, because the gamepad would have lent itself to sports titles quite nicely.

uglyjoe

I’ve always had the impression that people who mostly play sports games are allergic to Nintendo products. I really can’t imagine some bros crowding around the Wii to play the latest Madden. Maybe it happens, though, I dunno.

http://zacshipley.com/ Zac Shipley

Wii Sports is the #1 game of ALL TIME. it is what made the Wii a success. Nintendo should be bending over backwards to keep sports fans on their console.

Sports games sell and they sell in huge numbers. The XBox One announcement spent almost half the event talking about sports games.

EA also runs Need For Speed, Dead Space, Battlefield, Popcap (Plants vs Zombies, Peggle), The Sims, Sim City…

Can you tell me a Command & Conquer game wouldn’t work with the Wii U controller? That Star Wars isn’t welcome on a Nintendo Console?

Gamers lose when publishers give up on a console.

EA either making less games or no games (conflicting statements from employees) is the canary in the coal mine.

uglyjoe

I was mainly responding to:

“Like it or not, there are people who want to play Madden, Call of Duty, and even The Sims on the Wii U”.

The Sims I can understand, but not Madden or Call of Duty. There are different breeds of gamers, and I really don’t see the Madden and Call of Duty crowd ever buying a Nintendo product.

“Wii Sports is the #1 game of ALL TIME. it is what made the Wii a success. Nintendo should be bending over backwards to keep sports fans on their console.”

Wii Sports is a (really great) mini-games collection. I have honestly never considered it to be a sports title in the vein of the sports titles that EA releases. A game like Wii Sports would sell Wii U units. I’m not so sure Madden would have the same effect.

“Gamers lose when publishers give up on a console.”

No doubt. I’m indifferent to EA’s library, but there are obviously Nintendo gamers who look forward to some of their titles.
http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

While it was an optional purchase in Japan, Wii Sports was a pack-in title here in the States, where (I think) the Wii still holds the lead in console sales for its generation. I don’t think it’s fair to look at those numbers and declare it filled a much-wanted sporting niche, especially since those mini-games were so anemic. FUN, but they did not convince me to get Mario Golf, or a Tiger Woods game, or any of the EA Sports games that were available for the system. I think the overall low attach rate for the system bears that out as well: people just don’t buy non-Nintendo games for Nintendo’s latest consoles.

DJ

Even though EA snubbed the Wii U saying it’s crap, I think there are much darker reasons as to why.

  Let’s look at the Xbox One first. It’s been confirmed that to play used games, users will have to pay a fee and it will have to verify licenses online periodically. Doesn’t this sound like the same business model that EA apologized for after the SimCity fiasco? Well with this new Xbox they don’t have to implement it, they actually come out looking better while Microsoft takes all the bad press. Also with EA’s new partnership with Microsoft, how much influence do you think they had in putting these features into the new Xbox? Quite a bit??

  Looking at Sony, they haven’t officially announced their DRM policies except that it will play used games- but that doesn’t mean all of them. I think it will have DRM but it will be up to the publishers to implement it. Of course EA will, and this leads to why I think they dropped the Wii U. EA dropped the Wii U not because of it’s specs, but because they won’t make money off used game sales! First they stab Nintendo in the back, then they have Microsoft take all the hate. No wonder they won worst company two years in a row I don’t understand how they can still continue to exist.  

I also don’t understand all the Wii U hate, I think the Wii U would be a great console to develop for. Its graphics may not be on par with the others but it looks a lot better than current gen, which still look great to me! This also means it would probably cost less to develop for. With cheaper development costs and the cool uses of the gamepad, why aren’t developers flocking to it? This is probably the smallest jump in terms of any console generation yet and I don’t understand the hype. I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Watch Dogs on the Wii U and on the PS4 unless they were side by side!  

If all this DRM stuff happens, I really see no need for consoles anymore. Especially when I could build a better gaming PC and hook it up to my TV, and hey they games would be cheaper on steam as well! I think Nintendo was smart in distinguishing themselves as NOT A PC but a GAMING CONSOLE with unique experiences you can’t have on a PC. If anything, the generation after the next one might be between Nintendo and PCs. With more third party developers developing for PC and the games running better on them, who’s going to drop $500 on a system to play the handful of Sony exclusive franchises and the maybe three that Microsoft has?

Woah that was a long one, but it’s kind of a culmination of the past couple episodes. Keep up the good work guys, I can’t wait to hear what you think of the new Xbox.

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Famicom Dojo Podcast: An Unprecedented Partnership

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