Thing is, it isn't really a struggle to sell sports games on Wii. Just the "authentic" sports games, as Moore calls them.
The traditional sports games are being disrupted more quickly than practically any other segment. That's why not just EA, but Konami and 2K are giving special treatment to Wii versions of their sports games. Although Moore was very smart to protect the traditional EA Sports brand with the "All-Play" label, on the Wii that labeling has backfired. It has chased away any traditional sports gamers, while doing nothing to help attract people looking for the "pick up and play" family experience.
Meanwhile games like Deca Sports, Sega Tennis, We Ski, Big Beach Sports, and of course Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, are selling amazingly. If it was a case of "Wii Sports being good enough for a lot of people," why are there a bunch of non-traditional sports games outselling the EA Sports big guns?
The fact is, Wii Sports, Deca Sports, Big Beach Sports and the rest are all vastly superior games to Madden or FIFA... At the job of providing a fun experience that anyone can be competitive in without a large investment of time. The changes made for All-Play aren't enough to make Madden or FIFA competitive along those lines.
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
