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Businesses Entertainment Games

EA Forms Wii-Centric Studio 81

Posted by Zonk from the wiiea dept.
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."
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EA Forms Wii-Centric Studio More

EA Forms Wii-Centric Studio

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  • I thought... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Lectoid ( 891115 )
    I was originally going to say that I thought Ubisoft was aiming for number two, but that was meant as number two behind EA.

    http://games.slashdot.org/games/06/11/27/1919234.s html [slashdot.org]

    Either way, good to see companies fighting over making games for the Wii.

    • Re:I thought... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Phisbut ( 761268 ) on Friday December 01, 2006 @11:37AM (#17067066)
      I was originally going to say that I thought Ubisoft was aiming for number two, but that was meant as number two behind EA.

      Ubisoft wants to be number 2 globally, which is for the Wii, PS3, Xbox360 and PC combined. In that combined market, EA is first. However, on the Wii (or GameCube, or NDS, or GBA, or just any console made by Nintendo), Nintendo is by far and beyond the first developer, and I truly doubt anybody will ever catch up to them. Even EA can't make something as successful as Zelda, Squeenix either.

      Even if there is extensive 3rd party support for the Wii, 4 Nintendo franchises will sell more than 50% of all software : Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Pokemon. Final Fantasy and Madden can't even dream to get that big a market share.

      • The funny thing is, even though Nintendo only makes software for Nintendo consoles, if you count total software sales internationally, Nintendo is first overall. Nintendo published software outsells software made by every other company in gaming, EA is a distant second.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Phisbut ( 761268 )
          The funny thing is, even though Nintendo only makes software for Nintendo consoles, if you count total software sales internationally, Nintendo is first overall. Nintendo published software outsells software made by every other company in gaming, EA is a distant second.

          Got numbers to back that up?

  • Uncompetition (Score:5, Interesting)

    by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 ) on Friday December 01, 2006 @11:07AM (#17066474)
    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.

    • 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.

      I don't see this happening. Handheld games are what, 64MB tops? Developing a game for the Wii should be similar in cost to developing for the gamecube. I think it's more likely that you'll just see a port of the game to the Wii. The Wii is a lot less powerful, but it also only does SD resolutions. Provided the

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
        There's more difference between Wii and 360/PS3 games than the resolution. Running Unreal Tournament 2007 on 640x480 doesn't make it run on the same hardware as UT2003.
        • Naturally, and actually given the engine it's probably less true than for most other ports to consoles - the unreal engine is notorious for being CPU-bound. Even so, there is something to what I say :P The game doesn't have to do as much on the Wii.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
            Yes but even without the HD 360/PS3 games use more polygons, shaders, RAM and CPU load than the Wii can handle.

  • EA Has A Million Little Studios (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01, 2006 @11:11AM (#17066544)
    EA has a million little studios all over the world. Even if you already know that EA is a big company, the number of little studios the company continuously is buying or setting up is staggering. So this is a pretty meaningless 'development'. It is pretty much the equivalent of a smaller company hiring or making one employee their 'Wii guy'.

    There has been some friction inside EA with the Wii, most people want to focus on the PS3 and think the Wii is a distraction. So letting a small group focus on Wii specific stuff is a good option and lets the people at RS and the other main campuses focus on their PS3 titles.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rydia ( 556444 )
      a) EA has many, many studios. That does not mean those other studios will not make Wii games. This is simply a dedicated studio. Your first point doesn't make a whole lot of sense, if you are trying to make this into a point about EA's commitment to the Wii.

      b) Most people? Distraction? What? I'm glad you have psychic powers and can read EA's collective mind, but if you're going to be making claims like that, you should probably have something to back you up.
    • There has been some friction inside EA with the Wii, most people want to focus on the PS3 and think the Wii is a distraction. So letting a small group focus on Wii specific stuff is a good option and lets the people at RS and the other main campuses focus on their PS3 titles

      What's the color of the sky in your world Mr. Anonymous Coward Sony Fanboy Troll?

      The fact is that EA is by far the most platform agnostic developer in the world and doesn't really focus on any platform in particular; opening up a Wii spe
    • Yes, I'm sure a company like EA who could give a crap about quality games and is entirely focused on the bottom line, is having a 'war' over who to develop for. On the one hand you can develop for a product that is inexpensive and showing signs of increasing demand, done on the cheap with higher margins of profitability per game sold. On the other hand you could consider that to be just a "distraction" from your desire to make money and focus all development on extremely expensive titles, made with extreme

    • Re:EA Has A Million Little Studios (Score:5, Funny)

      by Rycross ( 836649 ) on Friday December 01, 2006 @11:34AM (#17067010)
      Ahh anonymous PS3 astroturfer. For someone who likes to paint the Wii as irrelevant, you sure seem to expend a large amount of effort spreading FUD to discredit it.

      I've not heard of any friction concerning the Wii. Maybe if you had some sources, this would be more believable. But it is nice of you to pull the old "I know a lot of game developers who don't like the Wii" trick out of the hat again.

      I really can't imagine anyone being so committed to a video game console. Seriously, you act like people are kicking your dog if they dare say anything short of glowing praise for the PS3 and utter disdain for the Wii.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by nEoN nOoDlE ( 27594 )
      So this is a pretty meaningless 'development'.

      I agree that EA has a million little studios so opening one up just for the Wii is pretty insignificant. What is significant, though, is that they said they want to be the number 2 developer of Wii titles. That is more than just opening a little studio that will throw out a game every 8 months for the Wii. That declaration will hopefully make other developers think about making Wii titles, since EA thinks it's now a viable market.
    • most people want to focus on the PS3 and think the Wii is a distraction

      PS3 has sold around 150,000 units so far. Wii has sold around 600,000 units so far. Sony is trying to hit 1,000,000 units shipped by the end of the calendar year. Wii is trying to hit 4,000,000 units shipped by the end of the calendar year.

      Hmm, if I was an EA employee, I'd rather be on the team making games for the distraction as it seems it would lead to long-term employment.

  • my how things change (Score:5, Interesting)

    by grapeape ( 137008 ) <mpope7@kBOHRc.rr.com minus physicist> on Friday December 01, 2006 @11:12AM (#17066558) Homepage
    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 (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Pojut ( 1027544 ) on Friday December 01, 2006 @11:28AM (#17066868) Homepage
      you know, at first I was mad (like so many others) about the shift from the "revolution" name. Then the more I read the various reasons behind the name change, the more I not only understood it but embraced it.

      Revolution, it seems, was used to incite one. Wii, it seems, is used to describe such a revolution. Think about it. As silly as it may seem to some, part of the reason for the name (the "ii" representing people playing together) is actually smart. Small, insignificant, but smart. Look at what Nintendo has pushed with this. The system is not what was the Revolution. The social networking and community that the platform will (hopefully) develop (as it already is starting to) will trump any other social network for any other console in history.

      I don't mean because multiplayer will be amazing or anything like that, I mean because the system encourages people to play together. It encourages FAMILIES, not just the kids, to play video games. It provides a way for a family to interact with one another. It provides a way for grandma to get in on the fun.

      Like I said, at first I thought the name was pure marketing bullshit. Upon further inspection, however, I understand and applaud their efforts. I consider myself a fanboi of ALL consoles, mainly because I see the good and bad in all of them...it is very rare for me to NOT like a console.

      That being said, the Revolution was just the beginning. The Wii is the free world that forms after the revolution.

      Also, this frees up Nintendo to use the name in something that truely is revolutionary. As amazing and fun as the Wii is, I can assure you that there are places the technology can go that Nintendo is just beginning to discover.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by KingVance ( 815011 )
        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 sho

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pojut ( 1027544 )
          to refer to a pie analogy I made in an earlier thread this week, Nintendo got tired of baking the same pie as everyone else. This time around, rather than try to make that same pie better, they just made an entirely different one.
          • I'm afraid I can't process any analogies unless they are in car form...

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Pojut ( 1027544 )
              then you are in luck, I've worked on cars for over 12 years (4 of those professionally)

              Take the whole "SUV is a car and not a truck" movement going on. you know that commercial where they show an SUV stop and the body flies off and it's a pickup underneath? And the point of the commercial is this SUV drives like a car because it's a unibody (which is the STUPIDEST thing I have EVER heard...it's no longer a truck, it's a fucking station wagon)

              Well, that is what Sony and Microsoft are doing. They are takin
            • Nintendo got tired of baking the same car as everyone else. This time around, rather than try to make that same car better, they just made an entirely different one.

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by Chris Burke ( 6130 )
            And to further abuse -- I mean extend -- your analogy, it's as if traditionally everyone was making rhubarb pie, and trying to make better rhubarb pies to get more of the rhubarb pie eating market. Then Nintendo decided that maybe they should try making an apple pie and thus get people who might like a pie but don't find rhubarb appealing. And the other pie makers made fun of Nintendo because their apple pie wasn't as huge as their pies, and didn't have as finely textured a crust. But a lot of people don
            • Don't diss rhubarb! Strawberry rhubarb pie is awesome. Especially when it's warm, with some vanilla ice cream on top. Mmm.

              A mini-rhubarb pie that I could take with me would be great. I'm wondering how I would carry around a mini-scoop of ice cream without it melting, though. That could be tricky.
        • I'm glad its just not my parents. After playing mine, my mother has decided to buy one for my 59 year old father for christmas. I was shocked. I dont think the "revolution" is the console at all, the revolution is the new segment of gamers that it is attracting. According to sales charts there are approximately 300 million current generation consoles that have been sold. There is also research showing that approximately 53% of "gamers" are dormant-gamers meaning they have no current consoles but have p
      • I think the name Revolution would make more sense if Nintendo just tried to make a powerhouse graphics machine, but considering the type of console the Wii is, it makes more sense to have it be a nonsensical name. When I think of the name Wii, I no longer think of urine, I think of making a child-like "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! This is fun!" type of sound. But that's just me. I am a dork.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pojut ( 1027544 )
          You may be a whale penis (which is what a dork really means...look it up) but you are also responding EXACTLY how Nintendo wanted people to respond to the name.

          They seem to be getting that a lot this time around...

  • Early statement (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Programmer_In_Traini ( 566499 ) on Friday December 01, 2006 @11:16AM (#17066648)
    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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by chrismcdirty ( 677039 )
      It may only been the third generation since the original PlayStation, but it's actually the seventh console generation.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brkello ( 642429 )
      You are making the same "bold" statement that every other Slashdot fanboy on here is making. Sorry, when everyone else is already saying it, it isn't bold, nor is it early.
      • heh, if you oppose my message and feel like flaming me, feel free to send me a private message where I'll be happy to explain that if havent read all what other /. fanboy say (which i havent) then from my point of view, it is still early and bold.

        The fact that you peruse all /. comments and note that there is a tendency doesnt make it any less early and/or bold for me.

        if you feel my response is too fanboyish feel free to PM me where we'll be able to spare the /. community the rest of the petty talk.
        • I don't think he was flaming you and I agree that you aren't making a bold statement, especially when preaching to the choir. Oh sorry, guess I need to take it to PMs as well.
          • meh, mea culpa, i've thought there was somekind of internal PM system but apparently not.

            but the point of what im saying is that it depends on which side of the choir you're standing.

            you wanna know why im saying its bold and early ?

            first reason is because for a long time people always suspected the Wii would be good just because of the Wiimote but no one thought it would win. always placing consoles in these order (depending on what's their preferate console)

            360, PS3, Wii
            360, Wii, PS3
            PS3, 360, Wii
            PS3, Wii,
  • "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."

    Great so they are already admitting defeat before going in. Before the N64 third party games were close to as dominate as the nintendo games, the problem is with the n64 no one really tried, on the Gamecube most third party companies barely made games,

  • Hmmm (Score:2, Insightful)

    by PingSpike ( 947548 )
    Despite analyst assurances that there would no longer be many console exclusives, EA is forming an entire studio for Wii titles.
    I'm not sure why analysts thought the Wii wouldn't have a lot of its own excusives, even from 3rd party developers. Porting to the Wii a game that was designed with the other two big consoles in mind presents two challenges:
    1) The Wii has less graphics horsepower.
    2) The controller is completely different.

    Downscaling the graphics may not be terribly difficult, but I suspect ad

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pembo13 ( 770295 )
      The Wii _does_ support two traditional controllers if developers would like.
      • Or four. But who's counting.
        • At least five, probably eight.

          Bomberman '93 on virtual console has up to 5 player support. Through any combination of up to four gamecube controllers, up to four wiimotes or wiimotes with classic controllers. You could have 4 GCN controllers and one classic controller, or vice versa, or anywhere in between.

          I suspect that Wii games can potentially use the four GCN / 4 Wiimote with Classic Controller option as well, but this is just speculation based on Bomberman.
        • I just went from "might buy Bomberman '93" to firing up the Wii to add points now... Bomberman w/ 5 players is sheer madness and great fun.

    • Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Yvan256 ( 722131 ) on Friday December 01, 2006 @11:54AM (#17067426) Homepage Journal
      Porting to the Wii a game that was designed with the other two big consoles in mind presents two challenges:
      1) The Wii has less graphics horsepower.
      2) The controller is completely different.
      1. The Wii has less graphic "horsepower" (we're measuring graphics in kinetic energy now?), but since the other two consoles "have to" render in HD, they need to be four times as powerful as the Wii. So, once you take the resolution into account, I'm pretty sure all 3 consoles are as powerful as the other (except maybe the Xbox 360, which wasn't designed for true HD graphics in the first place - if you get below 30fps that's not powerful enough in my book). And the Wii can do 480p, which is as high as regular DVDs, which many people think is "good enough" unless they have HD displays.

      2. The controller is completely different, yet it's still the same. Think of the Wiimote+nunchuck as a "gamepad analog stick+mouse" combo. Some games will actually play better on the Wii (if coded properly) than on the Xbox 360 or PS3. CoD3 is a good example - I don't want to play such games with a stupid analog stick to aim. It just doesn't work. That's like trying to play Super Mario Bros with a mouse. And, worst case scenario, the Wiimote can be held like a NES gamepad with rotation just like a PS3 "Sixaxis" controller, Gamecube controllers can be used, and there's also the "Classic gamepad" option. So really, the Wii isn't some "special beast that can't do what the others can't" in the controls department. In fact, aside from the number of buttons (which, frankly, was getting ridiculous in the last generation), the Wii can do more than the other two.

      • Yes Wii probably doesn't need to be as power full because of lower resolutions requirements, but for the same reason they will not look as good on an HD television (and i have no idea why anyone would get an xbox 360 or a ps3 if they dont have one). Oh and that comment about horsepower, way to be an anal-retentive, its the nature of the way people talk, horsepower refers to magnitude not the actual type of energy or force or effect. On to the controller. As you said the Wii can do something special with th
      • So, once you take the resolution into account, I'm pretty sure all 3 consoles are as powerful as the other

        4x the required horsepower (used figuratively of course, there is no such thing as a unit of potential graphical rendering capability) in the pixel rasterization hardware is not the same as requiring 4x the horespower overall. All the other things that "need" to be better to look good on an HD screen -- geometry detail, texture resolution, number of shader passes, and all that jazz -- is enabled by the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Aladrin ( 926209 )
        I think you may have missed his real point: It is harder to port to the Wii than other consoles.

        1) Yeah, but that means scaling down the graphics/meshes/textures so that it doesn't choke. It may take less power, but if you feed it the same input, it'll still choke.

        2) The controller is different, so the control scheme is different. You can THINK of it as a stick+mouse combo, but that does not help the developer at all. Instead of a stick and buttons, or a mouse and buttons, he's got a stick and mouse a
        • I think you may have missed his real point: It is harder to port to the Wii than other consoles.

          Yet, a dev version of the PS3 or xBox360 costs USD 20,000, while a dev version of the Wii costs USD 2,000.

          It may be harder, but the entry costs are far cheaper, and the graphics work is a lot cheaper to do.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Yvan256 ( 722131 )
          1. Scaling down graphics/textures/etc isn't that hard. Make the artwork for PS3 and Xbox 360, then scale down for Wii. It's not like the Wii renders in 352x240 here... it may not be HD but it's not that weak either. At worst, simply scale down some visual effects if needed. I'd rather have my games run at a smooth 30 images/seconds then a good-looking slideshow at 15 images/second.

          2. It's the same thing as porting PC games to a console. For the Wii you simply port keyboard movement to the nunchuck and mouse
    • Sheesh- how soon we all forget/ignore. The Wii is intended to work with gamecube controllers which I consider to the THE best engineered game controller I've ever used- so comfortable...

      And, if there isn't already, I'm sure there will be a Wii re-release of the GC controller in the Wii plastic style. There will be many, many games that do not and cannot use the Wii-mote. I also anticipate many games that give the option of using either or.
  • Would you rather play a game such as Unreal Tournament/Quake/Doom on your computer with a keyboard and mouse, or with a stupid gamepad with analog thumbsticks? Put those two players inside the same game and the gamepad player probably won't stand a chance.

    Also, after playing Zelda (which ain't even a shooter) for a week, I find it weird to hold a gamepad in my hands (even the one from the Gamecube, which IMHO is the most comfortable gamepad ever made).

    Of course, a lot of games would be weird with the Wiimot
    • Well you are saying that now, but have you looked at the list of games and release dates? Most developers are focusing on consoles, even FPS games are coming out for xbox first, and are usually much better because the pc versions end being a lousy port that doesn't work properly. Controller problems for console only come from poor development most of the time. Not counting MMOs or RTS games, a gamepad will be perfectly fine to play the game with. And in some cases a keyboard is the worst possible controlle
  • Hmmm I'm not at all a console person but I've seen Wii, GameCube and PS2 in action and I've to say Wii is fun but the graphic is just crap with Wii Sports. I hope other games are not like that. OTOH PS3 price is just ridiculous.

    • Re:ps3 vs wii (Score:4, Funny)

      by jrieth50 ( 846378 ) on Friday December 01, 2006 @12:23PM (#17068084)
      Yes, Wii Sports is the pinnacle of the graphical power of Nvidia's chipset technology. After making the GPU that powered games like Resident Evil for GameCube they sat down to create a GPU more powerful and that could handle rendering Fisher-Price lookalike balloon-headed guys with almost no textures. I think its safe to say we'll not see a game with better graphics than the free pack-in multi-game title Wii Sports on this console.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rjung2k ( 576317 )
      Yes, because everyone knows that Katamari Damacy representats the pinnacle of PS2 graphics, and the PSP can't display anything better than LocoRoco.

      (Hint: There's a difference between "style" and "ability." Learn the difference)
  • EA are clearly going to be making at least one Wii specific game. Which isn't going to surprise anyone.

    A studio doesn't have to be particularly big. And most developers will keep development on specific platforms in the same place. It means they can swap programmers around between projects, and makes equipment purchasing simpler. Simple benefits like that.
  • I love going back to read Slashdot's initial skepticism [slashdot.org] (if not outright indignation) about the Wii's name change. It's funny how quickly we've adapted to the new name (and how brilliant the switch seems in retrospect).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Daetrin ( 576516 )
      Personally i still hate the name and wish they'd kept "Revolution." But as usual society seems to be outvoting me =P
  • If you go to the Sims [thesims.com] website, you see a link now for the Japanime version of the Sims for the Wii (which I would guess they're going to call Wii Sims unless they are clueless.

    It's hyper-cute.

    Japanese-only at this point, but let's hope they don't region-encode it since so many US and Canadian gamers can handle it.

    I'll reply with the link to the Japan site once I figure it out.
    • Here is the link to the Japanese (not English) website for Sims for the Wii - which I will call Wii Sims [boku-sim.jp].

      Enjoy! It has a cool movie and a bunch of pics. I think a french website has more pics from the site (about 30 if I remember correctly), but I can't recall the web link for that one.
    • I am thinking, my friend, that you chose the wrong board to use the word "Japanime".
    • Oh please.

      Sime Wii is so obviously a better name.
  • Lived a Wii-centric life. Beware EA.. Beware
  • EAs understanding is, that they cannot gain big market shares on a nintendo console. But face it they are wrong, there is only one reason why Nintendo has such a huge marketshare, they are gaming gods when it comes to their game quality, every game, although they constantly recycle franchises, has something to it, and very often innovative gameplay. There are other companies which are in the same league, Ubisoft to some degree lately, Bioware, Sega to some extent and Capcom also lately. But EA is not one of

    • While I do own consoles from many manufacturers (including Sony and Sega), I did not buy an Xbox or a PS2. I bought a Cube. And I bought exactly one EA game: Need for Speed Underground. There are two issues with EA's games on the Cube:

      • First, their quality is mediocre at best. They may not be bad games, but the Cube ports sucked. They got bad reviews, especially in platform-agnostic mags where they compared the different versions. NfS had really bad framerate problems, despite having PS2-level graphics. So

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