Why does E.A have issue with Nintendo still

[potato_hamster]

GhaudePhaede010 said:

potato_hamster said:
It's quite simple, really. EA doesn't hate Nintendo. In fact far from it. I had the opportunity to spend a few months working with teams at EA Canada. It's physically one of the biggest game studios in the world. There were statues, arcade machines, all kinds of things all over that campus, but one thing that always stood out to me was the plaque on the wall commemorating the time Miyamoto came to visit. That was a huge deal to them. EA has huge respect for Nintendo, make no mistake about it. But they respect their shareholders even more.

The reason EA doesn't invest more heavily in Nintendo platforms is very very simple. Money. EA games on Nintendo's platform don't give an adequate return on investment. Full Stop. WHen a new platform comes out, they test the water,, normally with a FIFA title and see how it sells. From there they branch out into Madden, Need for Speed, Sims, NHL etc. The first FIFA title sold well enough to warrant another FIFA title, but not well enough to warrant other titles. That second FIFA didn't sell well enough for EA to do anything other than pull the plug on putting their larger titles on the Switch. That's all there is to it.

This would make more sense if the people here were debating bringing only new games to the console but most here are completely lost on why EA wouldn't bring their 16-bit and other classic titles to the console (or even E-shop back on Wii and WiiU). To not bring the newest and biggest is one thing that many can go back and forth on forever because some people will ignorantly back a company and some will ignorantly attack said company. However, I do not think anyone can argue that not bringing their older titles to Switch, even if only to make a quick and easy buck and never bring the newest content to Switch, makes absolutely no sense.

EA is missing out on cheap to produce titles making them a healthy return - even if that return is only to fund their next big Playstation and XBOX titles. Capcom has done this and look at their success with Switch. Why EA would not see that business model and (in the case of Switch specifically) do the same is a question that nobody can accurately nail down. And to many people, it screams that the relationship has soured on a more personal level - considering EA have a marketing team and upper management that gets paid to know exactly how well other companies are doing, what they are doing, and how they are doing it. EA knows that can be a successful revenue stream (the business model has been laid before them) yet they refuse to take it and we are all left confused about why that is.

Well, for all their sports games, re-releasing them would mean re-licensing them. That's teams, players, logos, sponsors, etc. Not simple. And then there's all the other games that feature music that would have to be re-licensed. Also not simple and could mean that any of these titles lose their potential profitability.

All of those logos and music they've put in their games throughout the years has come back to bite them in a lot of ways.

And then you're assuming that EA has been diligent backing and storing the source code on many of these old games. Unfortunately based on my experience this is not the case. It's actuallly a pretty common issue in the industry and many re-masters have been bogged down or flat out cancelled because of a lack of access to some or all of the original source code and/or art assets.

Last edited by potato_hamster - on 17 June 2019