Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

EA - Wii Caught Us By Surprise

Posted by Zonk on Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:04 AM
from the they're-getting-better dept.
Businesses Wii (Games)
A Next Generation story details comments by EA's CEO John Riccitiello about the surprise hit that is the Wii. The exec as much as admitted that they 'bet on the wrong horse' by focusing on the PS3 and 360 during the console transistion, and now are turning the mighty corporate ship as fast as they can to stay with Nintendo's success. "Nevertheless, Riccetello said that EA had the second-largest market share on Wii as of March with 19 percent, thanks mainly to Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Only Nintendo had a larger share. The firm shipped six new Wii titles in fiscal 2007. EA also shipped eight titles on Nintendo DS. The emergence of online, wireless and geographical differences in the console realm also made things complicated in fiscal '07."
+ -
story
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

EA - Wii Caught Us By Surprise 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • Bad joke (Score:4, Funny)

    by east coast (590680) on Friday July 27 2007, @10:10AM (#20011073)
    The Wii caught them so off gaurd that they nearly pissed themselves.

    Thankyou, thankyou, I'll be here all week.
    • EA have matured as a company. We know that with age you've always got to consider Wii well in advance. You certainly don't want to be caught short. Looking round EA's forthcoming lineup I definitely see a lot of Wii coming soon.

  • Oblig. Reply (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Thats what she said!

  • Good Thing? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Odin_Tiger (585113) on Friday July 27 2007, @10:11AM (#20011089) Journal
    In a way, this could be a really good thing for Wii that EA missed the boat to a degree. Without the EA juggernaut from day 1, it may have left enough room for younger, more innovative companies to get a solid foot in the door. That little moment of bad judgment may well reverberate through the lifespan of the console, and I can't say I expect it to be in a bad way.

    (...oh, and...first?)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bym051d (980242)
      It gave them the opportunity, but few have stepped up. There's a decent amount of Wii software now, but the very large majority is pure crap. Most companies just threw out as much crap as possible hoping it would stick. I bought a Wii in February and have purchased two games. There's one more I want, but I'm playing through the VC original (Paper Mario).
    • No such luck. Unfortunately, all the other companies missed the boat too. It seems only Nintendo believed the platform would do well.
    • I don't think smaller, innovative companies really compete head-on with EA. I know that there's some other stuff here and there, but isn't EA basically a sports game company? (It's all I've ever seen them make. Personally the only EA games I own are the SSX series). While I'll not dispute the popularity of sports games (hell I even used to like them myself back in the days of "Double Dribble" and "Super Tecmo Bowl" :)), it seems like for the most part, people who buy those types of games are gonna keep b
      • His point is that Indie developers may have felt there was enough space to produce a game, where they melt have felt the market was too crowded if EA had come on with a huge showing initially. The Indie games will already be in development now, if they're going to be, and EA's late announcement of support won't stop most of them.

        I dunno how RIGHT he is, but that's what he meant.

  • Surely it did (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ceeam (39911) on Friday July 27 2007, @10:13AM (#20011123)
    Just proves how far detached big game companies are from their userbase and how little do they understand entertainment.

    • Re:Surely it did (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Lockejaw (955650) on Friday July 27 2007, @10:16AM (#20011171)
      EA -- releases the same games year after year, with some updates
      Wii -- completely new control system, so something of a new way to game

      Yeah, sounds like EA is a bit of a mismatch, eh?
      • EA -- releases the same games year after year, with some updates
        It's fucking football. What do you want them to do, change the rules?

        They are a business. If people want to buy something and you can make it, you make it.

        • Re:Surely it did (Score:4, Funny)

          by Fozzyuw (950608) on Friday July 27 2007, @12:18PM (#20013141)

          What do you want them to do, change the rules?

          Yes! [wikipedia.org] =)

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by mkettler (6309)
          Sure, there's a reasonable excuse for EA's sports based games.

          But what about everything else EA does?

          Looking on their website, they list 14 "new releases" going back to 2/21/07. Every one of them is a sequel, except "Boom Boom Rocket".

          Even outside the sports genre, EA is not well known for having many brand new games. They publish a lot of "xyz 2" and "abc the follow on adventures".

          Hence, it's not surprising that the Wii caught them off guard. They don't have any finger on anything new in the gaming market.

    • Re:Surely it did (Score:4, Informative)

      by falcon5768 (629591) <Falcon5768.comcast@net> on Friday July 27 2007, @10:21AM (#20011261) Journal
      no no they are very attached to their userbase. What the Wii did though was expand that. The game execs where too busy selling to the hardcore that they forgot there are millions of other people who are NOT hardcore, and who only pick up a game here or there because their tastes are not for Dead or Alive boobie soccer, Final Fantasy XVI "The search for shemales", or Metal Gear Solid Geriatric.

      these are the katamari people, the same types who buy Luxor on their computers. Nintendo through their superior thrashing of the handheld market saw this nitch, and latched onto it. The people who still bought those other systems are still there, but Nintendo brought in a whole new crew to the party.

      Basically they did to the industry what they did to jumpstart it back up in the 80's

    • Re:Surely it did (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gstoddart (321705) on Friday July 27 2007, @10:23AM (#20011293) Homepage

      Just proves how far detached big game companies are from their userbase and how little do they understand entertainment.

      Well, the thing about new and disruptive technologies, is nobody really sees them coming.

      For years, they've been on the march of "better graphics, more of the same kind of game play" that they haven't been able to look outside of that scope and foresee the effects of the Wii.

      All of a sudden someone comes along, says "graphics aren't the whole point, and, hey, look at this new controller". The rules change. A lot of people who weren't into games (or losing interest, or whatever) stand up and decide that is exactly what they've been looking for, and where do I get one. It's only once it's become wildly popular and something you can't ignore, that you have to re-evaluate what you thought.

      In fairness, I don't think anyone saw the Wii coming or could have planned on the fact that simpler game play, with less intense graphics, that actually involved moving around would have captivated so many people. You're probably right to an extent, but from their position, EA would have looked at the Wii and said "Well, I don't see that being a big deal". Now they're finding out they were horribly wrong.

      Me, I still can't get over how much fun the Wii Sports which came with my Wii is -- I mean, bowling of all things? Who knew? These are exactly the kind of games I've wanted -- only I didn't know it, I just knew I couldn't play/stand most games anymore.

      Cheers

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by dctoastman (995251)
        No offense, but I saw the Wii coming. I underestimated the speed at which it caught on, but I knew that it would be the best console to own this generation.

        That's because I started to realize that Nintendo knows what people want better than the people themselves.
        Everyone bitched about the Wind Waker. Wind Waker comes out to stellar reviews and praise.
        Everyone called the DS a gimmick. Now it is dominating the field.
        When I saw the Wii, I wasn't going to doubt Nintendo's direction.

        • No offense, but I saw the Wii coming. I underestimated the speed at which it caught on, but I knew that it would be the best console to own this generation.

          You saw it coming before launch? Or you saw it for what it was once it was there to be seen? The latter isn't so tough, because half of the media was covering it like crazy and saying the exact same thing.

          When it launched, I (and a whole bunch of other people) went "hmmm ... now that sounds fun". I certainly agree that Nintendo is doing an amazing job

          • Before it was named the Wii.
            I thought that the motion sensitive controller was a true innovation in the video game market and that Nintendo had the skills to do it justice. Based on their past successes with other such things.

            I've basically learned that when everyone is mocking Nintendo for something to keep an eye on it because it will be huge.
          • It may be three year old tech but it does everything the other two do except HD video. nintendo proved that you don't need the latest and greatest in horsepower to play a game that you will enjoy and remember.

            and the controller? well that's the latest in technology. MSFT and Sony completely missed the boat on INTERACTIVE games. Though i am still waiting for VR to come back. While the game play was slow on some of those it was cool. With the better hardware today it should be a lot more realistic.
          • Give the market a couple years, and see where the Wii stands then.

            The Wii will continue to have dominant market share, as it's particularly attractive to both older and younger game players.

            Meanwhile, people who only play first person shooters will continue to believe that the Wii is merely "gimmicky", and that their console is better because it has more pixels.

          • A) It was billed out as a "next gen" console (even though it's not)
            What is your definition of next gen?
          • Isn't that the exact same argument that was used against the DS?
      • Parent essentially sums some up what I was going to say.

        EA developed their understanding of the video game market and planned accordingly. They saw the rise of graphic dominance and hardcore gaming dominance. They may have tried to figure out how to pull in people who don't play video games but completely abandoned that approach. Given they frustration at pulling in non-gamers, I'm not surprised that they were caught off guard.

        However, I think it was a failure on their part not to realize what was nee

      • In fairness, I don't think anyone saw the Wii coming or could have planned on the fact that simpler game play, with less intense graphics, that actually involved moving around would have captivated so many people.
        Really? I suppose you're referring mainly to game developers. Because I'm fairly sure a lot of us saw this coming when we first heard/read about the Wii.

      • Re:Surely it did (Score:5, Informative)

        by phantomlord (38815) <phantoml@rochest e r . rr.com> on Friday July 27 2007, @12:06PM (#20012943) Journal
        Here's a Slashdot Poll [slashdot.org] from March 2006.

        22057 picked Sony to win by the end of this year
        13559 picked Microsoft
        9183 picked Nintendo

        There were obviously a few of us who thought Nintendo was going to win. A fairly significant amount given the inertia Sony already had in the market at that point and the general attitude toward MS here. That's better than 20% of people picking Nintendo, not exactly an insignificant amount.
    • You have it exactly upside down. EA is too attached to their existing userbase, and failed to foresee the new, different users jumping in.
      • No actually I believe he has it right. EA is too attached to their own preconceptions of what their userbase wants, and too detached from the actual users to see what they really want. Take the BF series for instance. People that I know who have been avid BF2 and BF2142 players that managed to get in on the Quake Wars beta like it much better than BF. It's exactly what they wanted from BF that they didn't get - because EA is too detached from their actual users.

    • Re:Surely it did (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jratcliffe (208809) on Friday July 27 2007, @11:57AM (#20012815)
      To be fair, it appears that the Wii success caught Nintendo off guard as well - while a designed shortage in the first couple of months to drum up attention might have been a good idea, it's very hard to believe that the current lack of availability is something that Nintendo planned, rather than a result of sales having outstripped Nintendo's forecasts (and hence manufacturing capability).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Blakey Rat (99501)
      Just proves how far detached big game companies are from their userbase and how little do they understand entertainment.

      Uh, huh?

      Isn't the problem more along the lines of EA was focusing on their core userbase, and then Nintendo introduced a lot of new gamers who weren't part of their core userbase before? I think you have this exactly backwards... the Wii isn't successful because hard-core gamers are buying it (although they are), it's successful because it's selling to people who don't typically buy game c

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by grumbel (592662)
      A lot of Wii users never were in their userbase to begin with, so I hardly would call it 'detached'. Wii is catering to a new audience.

  • Understandable (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sciros (986030) on Friday July 27 2007, @10:14AM (#20011131) Journal
    Considering the hype surrounding the PS3 and 360, it wasn't really stupid to back them or anything at the start. But the price annoucement changed everything, and they should have noticed that immediately. Instead, EA made the same mistake in judging the market that Sony did when they thought "well, PS2 dominated the market while pricier than the GCN, so at that rate people will gladly pay 2x as much for 100x the hardware." What they SHOULD have noticed is that people on the whole clearly don't care nearly as much about graphical firepower as other things, and the PS2 made that crystal clear!

    EA had the luxury of changing teams while Sony had to figure out how to stick with theirs, and so far the haven't been able to do so.

    • Considering the hype surrounding the PS3 and 360, it wasn't really stupid to back them or anything at the start. But the price annoucement changed everything, and they should have noticed that immediately. /quote>

      Yup. The PS3 was met with genuine anticipation up until the price point was announced. The arrogance with which that was handled made people step back and say "wait a sec, is this a pending trainwreck?" That E3 show cemented that feeling. "Riiiiiiiidge Racer!"

      The Wii was met with skepticism, mostly due to the silly name. But I think there's a key difference in the way the console launches were handled. Sony told you that you were wrong and needed to change your perspective, $600 is NOT too much to pay for a console. Nintendo, on the other hand, didn't set out to tell hardcore gamers they were wrong about needing the latest graphics and that they'd love the wiimote, they were more about approaching a target market that their research showed would be receptive to the product. They didn't say "Yo, non-gamers, you are now our bitches."

      It just goes to show, give people what they want, they'll respond positively. Opening up a new market is the tough part since you first have to persuade people to give it a try. Shitty products have to take the marketing beyond "give it a try," to "You are going to like it because I need to make bonus, you cocksucker."

    • Don't you get sick of copying and pasting this to every thread about the Wii?

  • On Simpson's Movie Opening Day... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bullfish (858648) on Friday July 27 2007, @10:14AM (#20011133)
    EA exec says "D'oh!"

    Seriously, even Nintendo didn't plan for the Wii's level of sell-through

  • Madden? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AKAImBatman (238306) <(akaimbatman) (at) (gmail.com)> on Friday July 27 2007, @10:17AM (#20011187) Homepage Journal

    EA had the second-largest market share on Wii as of March with 19 percent, thanks mainly to Tiger Woods PGA Tour.

    How odd. I would have thought that Madden was the EA leading title. While the graphics aren't as nice as the 360 and PS3 versions, players often report how cool it is to play the game with actual football movements rather than overly complex controller commands. I know a lot of non-sports gamers actually picked up the game just for the innovative controls. (I have to admit that I was also tempted. But I'm too much of a miserly scrooge to spend the money. :P)

    Then again, one of the things I really wanted when I got a Wii was a true Mario Golf type of game. Perhaps the serious golfers all played the Wii Sports version and fell in love with the idea? A relative of mine told his wife on no uncertain terms that they were getting a Wii, after he played a few holes on the Wii Sports Golf course. So I suppose it's possible that the Golfers like the idea even more than the football fans. (That's a shocking thought.)
    • Golf tends to lend itself to the Wii controller a bit more than football does, in my opinion. I'd also like to see a realistic baseball game for the Wii. Wii Sports baseball has an awesome pitcher-batter dynamic, but it doesn't have anything at all beyond that.
    • While there isn't Mario Golf yet, check out Super Swing Golf. The mechanics in it are pretty good (although it takes a while to figure out exactly how they want you to swing the wii-mote), and it has the same sort of cartoony style that a Mario Golf game would have. I'm also an owner of Madden, and the controls are pretty cool. I'm tempted to get the 08 version when it comes out because they have apparantly cleaned up some of the problems from the 07 version, mainly that audibles are being made easier, a

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bomanbot (980297)
      Well, I think the problem with Madden last year was that the Wii was just released for the holiday season, whereas Madden traditionally gets released in August or so (just before the start of the season). So I guess a lot of people who needed their Madden fix already had the game for a different platform and did not want to shell out money again for the Wii version (what is also a problem is that Madden on the Wii (AFAIK) does not have an online roster update function yet, so it came late to the party and i
    • I think part of it is that Nintendo has been selling many Wii's to the more "casual" gamer, and golf is certainly a more casual and relaxed game to play than football. Even if the motion controls have simplified Madden, the series of options that the game of football presents to someone who's functioning as both a coach and a player is quite complex and the timing and execution required to make it work takes a lot of practice to get comfortable with.

      It may take a significant amount of time to get really goo

    • Then again, one of the things I really wanted when I got a Wii was a true Mario Golf type of game. Perhaps the serious golfers all played the Wii Sports version and fell in love with the idea?

      Yup. The games in Wii sports are uncanny; at least to me.

      Bowling, I can do in real life (sorta). The Wii version feels exactly like that. It's fun. I spend a fair amount of time playing this.

      Golf, playing it feels like if I focus on my swing the same way I do in real life, I shoot better. It feels like practice.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by CopaceticOpus (965603)
      Of course, the nice thing about Madden is how quickly it depreciates. Just buy it in a year or two. I'm not much of a Madden fan, but it was hard to pass up when I saw Madden 2004 for my PS2 on sale for 83 cents. Yes, that was really the price!
  • I suppose that's better than catching their wii by surprise.

  • The exec as much as admitted that they 'bet on the wrong horse' by focusing on the PS3 and 360 during the console transistion

    No, he bet on the wrong horse by trying to use a business model for razors to run a games company. Gamers have voted with their money now that they have a choice - they choose not to have identical shitty games shoved at them every 12.0 months.

    Hopefully EA will be gone for good when the next gen comes around.
  • I rallied against my kids getting a new game system. Then I saw the Wii on the release date at a local mall and went on the hunt. I bought it for myself, disguised as a Christmas gift for the kids. Honestly, it was the pure lack of same old games that drew me in. Now, I'm looking forward to what EA might do with the Wii, and think this slow adoption might be good for both companies.

  • Everyone was blindsided (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Graftweed (742763) on Friday July 27 2007, @11:47AM (#20012691)
    I'm trying really hard to think of a studio that accurately predicted the Wii's success and oriented themselves accordingly, it wasn't just EA. Proof of this is that after all this time after the launch there are still very few truly stellar games for the system apart from Nintendo's titles.

    Instead they're all running around in a panic and screaming: "Titles for the Wii are coming, don't worry!". The problem is that this is a re-deployment of resources brought upon by the unexpected market share of a system, instead of that system's uniques features. Or in other words, it was a bean counter along the corporate hierarchy who said "Holy cow, this is thing is selling like hot cakes, we need games out NOW" instead of some developer taking a look at the cool new control system and saying "You know, I could really do something amazing with this" and proceeding to annoy bean counters to realize his idea.

    The end result is that this first flood of titles is crap, taking very little advantage of the Wii's control system. Things will get worse before they get better, as was the case with the DS's early life cycle.
    • Aside from Nintendo, Ubisoft was the only company to really push for the Wii at the beginning. They had Rayman, Red Steel, and some others I cant think of now.
    • Before E3 06? Dunno, I'm sure we were expecting a solid console, but then we were also expecting the PS3 to be a freakin monster. The thing is, even AFTER E3 '06, analysts and industry leaders were still backing PS3 as #1 and Xbox as #2.

      The lines at E3 '06 should have been a clue to even analysts that their previous thoughts on the PS3 might be shaky. The problem is, everyone in the industry was gauging the success of the new consoles on past history and no one gave even passing acknowledgement to the ex

      • The thing is, even AFTER E3 '06, analysts and industry leaders were still backing PS3 as #1 and Xbox as #2. The problem is, everyone in the industry was gauging the success of the new consoles on past history and no one gave even passing acknowledgement to the excitement in the Ninty fanbase.

        This guy [gametunnel.com] pegged it. (See the section titled "Generation 6") Amazingly enough, he did it by following the trends of the past. The exact thing that the press didn't do. The press foolishly followed the "Playstation will a

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by AKAImBatman (238306)

            Yet, the trends didn't necessarily point out just who would replace Sony (if anyone).

            The trends clearly showed that the PS3 and XBox 360 were too technologically advanced to be the winners of this generation. That left Nintendo and a possible newcomer. Since no newcomer arrived, Nintendo got to take the crown.

            It's an interesting thought experiment to think what might have happened if, say, Sega introduced a new console with a competitive price but more traditional controls. Would the Wii still be selling li

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.