EA Forms Wii-Centric Studio

Despite analyst assurances that there would no longer be many console exclusives, EA is forming an entire studio for Wii titles. Larry Probst revealed this tidbit in a very interesting interview with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal. They've since acquired Headgate studios, rebranding it EA Salt Lake. From the article: "I don't think the Wii is going to be any different than all the other Nintendo platforms. Nintendo is going to have a very significant market share, and all the third party companies are going to have market shares that are single-digit or low double-digits. We think that we can be very competitive in that environment. We don't have any expectations that we're going to have a 30 percent market share, as we have had on Xbox 360, on PlayStation 2, or what we're targeting on PlayStation 3. But I think we can have a meaningful market share on the Wii platform, and be in the number two position behind Nintendo."

Comments

Uncompetition

[HappySqurriel]

In the long run I expect to see the Wii (if it is popular enough) to be handled by developers in a very similar way to how handhelds have traditional been dealt with. In almost every major third party release for the home console a handheld version was made at the same time because of how much less expensive it was to develop and the size of the userbase for the handheld system. It is possible that you could see Final Fantasy, Metal Gear or GTA (or whatever) being released at the same time for the Wii and other platforms but the Wii version could be drastically different.

my how things change

[grapeape]

Concidering most talk of the Wii as if its just a glorified gamecube, isnt it rather odd that the company that was most vocal about offering minimal gamecube support now wants to be #2 behind Nintendo on the console.

So far I am overwhelmed by the support announced for the Wii, I would not be surprised at the is point to see square even meander back to its original home with more support. It may not win the consumer side of the console wars (I actually think it will) but its clearly won the hearts and minds of developers. Perhaps the original name "Revolution" should have been kept because its certainly introducted an expected spark of creativity and love for platform that most developers thought of as near death.

Re:my how things change

[KingVance]

I can say this with all certainty.

My mom has always hated video games..ever since I got a NES when I was 8 or so. She would play duck hunt but that was it.

I brought my Wii home a day or two after I got it proclaiming "mom, get ready to see the coolest thing in the world"

I got the typical "yeah yeah, just another souped up nintendo"

I showed her wii sports...specifically bowling.

Well...lets just say that my Wii is still at her house and shes gone through 3 sets of batteries.

When I first brought it over, i showed up around 8pm. She played til 5am..woke up at noonish...and played until midnight.

Nintendo acomplished their goal in my family. They didnt grab marketshare...tehy expanded the market.

I have already bought my mom a Wii for christmas....because she said "Son...this is what I want for christmas"

Early statement

[Programmer_In_Traini]

I'm making a bold early statement here but I predict the Wii will end up largely winner of this third gen console war, not because its powerful but because its so goddamn fun and innovative.