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EA Confirms Major Wii Support
Electronic Arts has confirmed they are 100% committed to the Nintendo Wii, reports Gamasutra. The largest game publisher in the U.S. has revealed six games currently in production for the console, which is scheduled to launch sometime in the Fall. From the article: "The EA statement on the matter comments: 'Each title will remain true to the hallmarks of its franchise but is being designed to maximize the power of the Wii hardware and take full advantage of the uniqueness and innovation of its one-of-a-kind controller.'"
EA innovating and not just re-releasing the same game with the trades made... I jsut got shivers running down my spine...
--Valthan
EA's sports titles on the Wii-mote sounds excellent to me. If they implement the analog control well, it might become the preferred platform for sports games. Seeing these titles excel on the Wii should boost Nintendo's street cred.
I hereby dub this The Jockstrap Announcement.
It seems FTA that none of the six titles are original though. They are all new versions of old franchises and multiplatform titles (like The Godfather.) It's a little bit disappointing that we're not seeing more original works.
If there is widespread game support on all of the next-gen systems, this could come down to hardware, pricing, and marketing. I know that the opening salvo of the last round of the console war was largely games available after launch.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
I'm not going to buy a Wii or any other console in this next generation, but I want the Wii to do very well since I think the technology and fun-aspect of it are very exciting. The "Wiimote" is pretty darn cool, and they seem to be interested in user-experience more than anybody else.
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
It's good to see support from large companies for the Wii. It looks like there will be some quality games for this system.
Even if I don't like EA as a company, everything I hear makes me feel that a Wii (and neither a 360 or PS3) is the way for us to go for this next generation, in terms of games options, fun, innovation, and of course cost. And this comes from a family that now has just a PS2 + PC games.
Other than the "poorer" graphics (intentional quotation marks), what bad stuff *has* come out about the Wii? Anything?
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Translation - they're all going to be sequels. No original content from us. We're EA, what did you expect?
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
At least something will be new about an easports title. I'm surprised they bothered to update their control scheme, when they could of said "just use gamecube controllers."
I don't know how the Wii controller will make video game sports any cooler. I'd rather just go play sports outside... in the sunlight.
Wow! Talk about your inovative controler. More than a two hundred piece skeletal structure and fully thought controlled through a high speed interface with zero lag. Perfect force feadback as well as heat/cold sensations and actual pain when you screw up.
The visual interface features perfect High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting and infinate polygonal surfaces with fully translucent light scattering substructures.
The environment is not only fully destructable, but fully interactive. Every single object down to individual grains of dirt can be manipulated at will and that awesome controller lets you manipulate it through a 100% 3D range of motion including rotation, push and pull along every axis.
For sports games, why would anyone use anything else?
Oh yeah, you have to F***ing excersize. Screw that, I'm gonna try out that Wii thingy.
TW
I wish I could mod you funny because I laughed hard enough for my boss to hear (had he actually been in the adjacent office)
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
What is this "outside" of which you speak?
It doesn't sound like it. They might tweak the interface for some of their old titles to take advantage of the new controller, but these are apparently going to be franchise games rather than original titles.
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
Yea, but you can't apply feature upgrades or patches easily, the dev tree is closed on release, and besides, it's completely closed source anyway.
Who knows what backdoors and exploits are left in a system like that...
Wii will be the console of choice for the next gen, followed by XBox 360, then PS3 as a close 3rd.
The only "if" in Wii's corner was EA's sports franchises. This pretty much guarantees it as long as the final Wii controller has enough buttons.
A lot of people are talking about EA "dropping the ball" by just introducing the same old crud on the Wii that they've introduced on every other platform, and that people won't want to buy the same games all over again. They're mostly correct, but they're not taking one thing into account: the wiimote.
Yes, the games are the same old thing they've had on many platforms before, but this would be its first time on the Wii. The control scheme is an important part of the game no matter what platform it's on, and if the control scheme is sufficiently different on the Wii (that is, if they use the fancy new control to its fullest), then people will buy it that all important one more time. And if it does really well, the Wii will become a choice platform for certain types of games over the PS3 and X360.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
But hey, it's the only system in the world where the trojans prevent the viruses.
People get used to things after a while. Film at 11.
Personally the touchscreen on my DS doesn't seem like a big deal to me anymore, but that doesn't mean I like Trauma Center or Meteos any less, and neither game would be much fun without the touchscreen. Of course, your game developer friend isn't playing all the new games in the works for the Wii, as they haven't been released yet. I'm sure that swinging the controller around on the devkit demo does get old after a while.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
This is news? I don't think so.
News would be: "The biggest game software vendor declines to write games for the industry's next major platform, thus ceding leadership to bit players X, Y and Z."
EA is trying anyway. You're right, they could've just released new rosters and said the old controller was enough. They didn't just phone it in. If they actually get rebounding sorta right-ish in NBALive after so many years of painfully bad results, Heck will at least be a little cooler. Maybe not Hell...
EA was among the earliest 3rd-party developers to show major projects on the Wii, and from the start they were talking about Madden and how the controller would work. It's clear they've spent some thought on what a new controller might mean for their franchises.
And yeah, they are franchise games. Go figger, EA is known for sports titles, and they will continue to make titles for the major US sports (except baseball now) and some for the rest of the world. Yes, I would personally be very interested in a Rugby title similar to their existing games, but apparently that doesn't have enough market behind it.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Um, I can't really say that I'm surprised at all. Come on Sega could make a new hardware platform and EA would make a few games for it. EA will be making games for all 3 consoles.
You know if EA really wanted to make some news; they'd start a nude sports series that was adult only that was the same exact games except that the players were all nude. O.k. the only games of that line that I would want is women's track & field, women's ice skating, women's swimming & women's tennis. I wouldn't want Nude Madden 2006 at all.
EA is reknown for treating employees less than fairly. And I don't really like many of their games. But strong 3rd-party support is something that Nintendo has been lacking, and this helps to dig them out of the hole just a little bit.
If Nintendo could get similar statements from other big companies, it would do so much for their prospects. I would really like to see Blizzard, Bioware, and Obsidian doing Wii games. I respect their PC games, and I think they could help to up the ante.
Also, I'm starting to get excited about Nintendo's new console for a different reason. People have struggled with RTS console games, due to the controllers. But couldn't the Wiimote work similar to a laser pointer? If so, wouldn't that open up some better control mechanisms for RTS console games?
-Tony
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
It's just not a console article without you!
Let's see, the article's about the EA's support for the Wii so you mention right off how awesome the PS3 is and finish with a superfluous dig at the 360.
You know, I should probably be annoyed at the low level of the astoturfing on display here, but somehow running across your posts always brightens my day!
Thank you Sony-Shill!
(Hey! Here's an idea! How about you register for an account and then I can find your comments more easily! You could even use the name "Sony Shill"! Unless you already registered for an account and were moderated into oblivion [not the 360 game though, because we all know that really super-duper sucks, right?! LOL!] and so had to resort to anonymity to fulfill your contractual astroturfing duties...)
It sounds great, but over years of regular use I have found that mine has developed lag and continues to get worse. While it's certainly lasted long enough to not really warrant a complaint, the problem is that there's no way to replace it with a new, non-laggy one, and it's become too much a part of my life to just quit using it.
am screaming in horror at this.
".... I suppose. If you like the same ol' crapy EA sports titles. I don't know how the Wii controller will make video game sports any cooler. I'd rather just go play sports outside... in the sunlight. (i'm sick, i know.)"
Ya.. I suppose. I don't know how posting a comment like this on Slashdot would be productive. I'd rather just go paint a picket sign and hover around Gamestop, outside I mean.. in the sunlight. I'm sick, I know.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
If all they are doing at EA is adapting current games to a new control scheme, then yes, they are not going to be excited about it. They're thinking about it in all the wrong ways.
I bet this is more about EA realizing that the PS3's high price is gonna boost the Wii's market share than about a desire to spend a lot of money developing unique ports for a third place (according to CW) console. Am I the only one who remembers EA not porting to the Dreamcast because of their (somewhat self-fufilling) prophecy of PS2 dominance? I still bet Madden will suck though.
He says the controller now is about as exciting as analog joypad input - can't really imagine going without it but nothing you really are thinking about when you use it everyday.
Sounds perfect. I wouldn't want it any other way. Any other way would imply that the controller was difficult to get used to. Just like the first use of an analog controller in Mario 64 seemed weird and exciting just on its own, pretty soon I got used to it and was more interested in how I could make mario run around than specifically thinking about the analog controller.
If the result of the Wii is that in the subsequent generation people consider motion-sensitive 3D-positioned controls to be both as fundamental and mundane as analog joysticks are today, then I don't think you could call it anything but a smashing success.
The enemies of Democracy are
While EA may not have a great track record for orginality, they are still an industry heavyweight.
This means that if EA is supporting the Wii, other big publishers will most likely step up and offer titles as well. This leads to more AAA titles and (hopefully) more innovative games that will truly make use of the Wii-mote.
There are hundreds of crap games for every Starcraft / Sims / Civ out there, afterall.
And have you tried to source replacement parts? Even if you can find them they are expensive as hell. Either that or you need to take a trip to Mexico because they don't sell them over the counter in the US!
Sometimes my arms bend back.
It's slashdot.. noob flaming is the only result of a comment like this. I enjoy good reading material for the restroom.
He whom you called four-eyes yesterday, you call Sir tomorrow.
You mean something like this or this?
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
This is likely to be one of the first blows to Sony's PS3. While I know the vast majority of /.ers arn't fans of EA, the public tends to say otherwise. Their flagship title, Madden, will bring a lot of people to the Wii. I figure in the coming future we'll see a lot more announcements like this.
The real people that are going to determine if the PS3 "wins" or the Wii "wins" are the develops/publishers. Whatever system they decide to release on most is the one that everyone is going to flock to because they want those games.
can't really imagine going without it but nothing you really are thinking about when you use it everyday.
That's what makes a good controller, the fact that you no longer have to think about it. It's an interface, a tool, not the game itself.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Nice title "EA Confirms Major Wii Support". I, for one, did not know EA was getting into the underwear business. Not at all suprised they are the kind of tightasses that would only make briefs.
Slashdot: Where anecdotes and generalizations can be freely substituted for facts, logic, or intelligence
high speed interface with zero lag
Actually IIRC there is significant lag of ca. 0.3-0.5 secs between input reaching your sensory organs and cerebrum reaction. Your brains just pretends to itself that it has zero lag. Reference IIRC somewhere in here,
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
You know if EA really wanted to make some news; they'd start a nude sports series that was adult only that was the same exact games except that the players were all nude.
Shade your eyes. EA Sports Triple Play Baseball (either '98 or '99) for PC & Playstation had a secret team that consisted of the software developers and artists in their underwear. Cheat codes are available somewhere for that.
To innovate, one should see what new opportunities and game types this controller can introduce to the console gaming world.
Who is this Major Wii and why is EA supporting him?
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Just think, if EA games is totally behind the Wii, that means not just playing Animal Crossing: Animal's Revenge on the Wii, it also means we'll get both Sims 3: High School and Sims 3: Pet Zoo as well as Spore by Will Wright on it as well!
...
Forget the PS3, I have no further interest in it anymore
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
"It's slashdot.. noob flaming is the only result of a comment like this. I enjoy good reading material for the restroom."
So... you say something stupid, print out the replies, and take that to the bathroom? Does having your silliness pointed out work better than ex-lax?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
Just because it's fairly obvious that getting used to a controller and accepting it as "normal" means it's a good controller doesn't make stating that either boiler plate or whoring. It's just the facts.
The enemies of Democracy are
Guys! Please dont respond to this drivel! Your comment might get modded up and people might be tempted to look at, well that crap. Some of them might even believe it!
Two tears in a bucket. Motherfuck it.
I cannot much say that I like anything that I am aware of that EA has put out. But, they are the biggest beast in the industry as far as publishers go, and having EA do full scale production on the Wii means a stronger 3rd party support.
And its strong 3rd party support that Nintendo has lacked since the N64.
I would also guess that EA is supporting the Wii as much due to lower dev costs as anthing else. EA likes profit, and lower dev costs mean more potential profit.
END COMMUNICATION
See you on Slashdot games as much as me, always have something interesting to say even if I don't. Good to see someone else with the same interests so hello. Richard.
Too bad I will not be support EA with my green backs ever. Give us the server and game sourse to earth and beyond and I might start buying EA games again.
I do not think it matters. Most EA sports games are mediocre, to say the least. An advanced control method like Wii's deserves better games than EA's.
The visuals may be great but the AI sucks.
well, according to Bullet Time i only have a lag of .217 secs.