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.'"

Comments

Did Hell Freeze Over?

[Valthan]

EA innovating and not just re-releasing the same game with the trades made... I jsut got shivers running down my spine...

Re:Did Hell Freeze Over?

[AuMatar]

From an engine standpoint, yes. From a playing standpoint- no. Pointing and moving the controller are entirely new control techniques for the player, using them as gameplay elements is innovation.

Re:Did Hell Freeze Over?

[Jerf]

You realize that to the game it doesn't matter if your twirling an analog stick, mashing a d-pad, or pressing the "Y" button. To the game its just input signals.

Technically true, but who cares?

What we care about is the full system, from the output of the human brain back into the input to the game device. At that level, there can be large differences in button vs. stick vs. something else entirely. Plus, not all signals are created equally; "analog" signals can carry a lot more info than digital button presses.

Now, I don't know what EA's plans are, and I don't know exactly how accurate the Wiimote is. But, if the Wiimote is as accurate with the accelerometers as it should be, and if EA is going all out, they could set it up so that you actually make a throwing motion, with full control over direction and speed as quickly as you can make the motion. This would be a qualitative improvement over any existing control setup, which has no feasible way to extract this much information from the player in any way the player could hope to deliver it. There is going to be no other way to tap into our throwing circuits anywhere near as well, and those are extremely refined by Mother Nature.

To the game, it's just another input. To the human, it's anything but.

This is supposition. I think it's possible that the Wiimote will be able to handle this technically (this is actually just an accelerometer application, exact positioning would be irrelevant, so even if positioning is wonky there's no good reason this won't have a sensing accuracy far in excess of the signals your body can generate), but I would be somewhat surprised if EA implemented this, as it would be a lot harder than button translation. But they are talking the talk, so one can at least hope they are walking the walk.

'Major Wii Support', huh?

[Millennium]

I hereby dub this The Jockstrap Announcement.

No original IPs

[scrabbleguy]

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.

Wii all the way for us

[SydShamino]

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?

Re:Wii all the way for us

[Dr. Eggman]

Its new name.

Re:Wii all the way for us

[snuf23]

Yo! I was playing a video game, And this guy he was like "I got the wiimote" And I was like... OH MY GOD! WIIIIII!

Apparently we're not the only ones who have made the connection, there have been some YTMND pages involving the wii and gonads and strife.

"true to its fanchise"?

[numbski]

Translation - they're all going to be sequels. No original content from us. We're EA, what did you expect?

Re:Yay

[Total_Wimp]

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

Re:Yay

[wiggles]

But hey, it's the only system in the world where the trojans prevent the viruses.

Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA

[timster]

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.

Please sir, may I have another?

[Anthony Boyd]

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

I for one...

[Ant P.]

am screaming in horror at this.

Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA

[Chris Burke]

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.