Peter Moore, Chief Operating Officer for the EA Sports division of Electronic Arts, did not mince words in his interview with GamesIndustry International when he called Nintendo's Wii U a "disappointment." Considering that Electronic Arts' new Ignite engine doesn't support Wii U or PC, this is not that much of a surprise.
Like the Wii before it, the Wii U has become notorious for not gathering strong third-party support. Even Ubisoft turned Rayman Legends into a multiplatform game after witnessing, as Alex Osborn reported, the poor sales performance for ZombiU. No wonder they've so far postponed a sequel.
Similarly, Peter Moore will not be pushing Wii U software either:
We were there with four games for them [at launch]. It's been a disappointment when you look at sell-through and, as a company, we have to be very judiciosu where we deploy our resources.The lack of online engagement that we see on Wii U [is troubling]. It's so integral to what we do. They're so small it's hardly worth running the servers. It seems like a box that's out of sync with the future of EA – which is one that gives a real social feel to our games. The Wii U feels like an offline experience right now.
With triple-A third-party developers investing heavily in high-end graphics, multiplayer support, and social integration, their interest in the Xbox and Playstation consoles over the Wii U is clear. It will seem that it will fall to Nintendo, alone, to hawk the Wii U as the holiday season approaches.
