FIFA 18's ads don't feature the Switch version?

[Bofferbrauer2]

DonFerrari said:

bonzobanana said:
I'm sure EA wants the Switch to be a minor format so that they can sell more product on more powerful x86 formats. They probably haven't got their head around the fact that people are buying the Switch not just for Nintendo games but to have decent games in portable mode. I can't see why they couldn't have done a better version of Fifa. They have a better relationship with Sony and Microsoft than Nintendo. It just feels like EA want the Switch to fail or be a niche product going by their actions. Bethesda in contrast have worked with the limitations of the Switch but still pushed the hardware as much as possible to deliver a competitive game experience albeit with reduced graphic fidelity. No such effort from EA. It seems they have very low ambitions regarding Switch.

If there is anyone out there with high regards for EA games who might be influenced by the lack of EA content on Switch then they would be motivated to buy a different system. EA for me is pretty insignificant nowadays. I'm much more interested in what Bethesda is doing as a big Fallout and Elder Scrolls fan.

Companies aren't obtuse... the most likely reason for no support from EA to Switch and timid investiment are risk aversion and market analysis pointing to low profit on the ports;

Mandalore76 said:

Name 1 American Football game released after 1990 that sold well without the NFL license.  There is a reason that Take-Two completely abandoned releasing American Football games after losing the NFL license.  They gave it a go with All-Pro 2K8 and saw their sales drop off a cliff.  Madden used to have competition for American Football video game sales.  No American Football game has sold over a million copies without the NFL license.  With EA holding exclusive NFL license, it now has a monopoly on the genre.

I think Midway might have been the last to even try, and here was the reception:

Pos	Game	Platform	Year	Genre	Publisher	North America	Europe	Japan	Rest of World	Global
1	Blitz: The League II	PS3	2008	Sports	Midway Games	0.11	0.03	0.00	0.02	0.15
2	Blitz: The League II	X360	2008	Sports	Midway Games	0.08	0.01	0.00	0.01	0.10

 

And how does that forbid anything? It may not make it sucessfull, that is the job of the developer to make it be wanted.

I would say the Madden name was even more relevant than NFL back in the time, as well as Joe Montana version.

Sure it will take effort, probably more effort than just having the license.

Still people are wanting EA to put effort to make a Switch version that will sell 110k and suddenly, making the game without license to sell that isn't good?

You don't seem to understand the core of his statement.

Unlicensed American Football games don't sell. At all. There's a reason why nobody makes them anymore, the earnings wouldn't be enough to cover the development costs. The only other american football game that does sell well is blood bowl, which replaces the teams with Warhammer 40k factions and ups the roughness up the ante, and the rules are used pretty liberally.

And for your association football (or soccer or just plain football, whatever you prefer) examples: PES has licenses, just not as many as the fifa series, and as a results sells much worse than Fifa. It did well last decade when the licenses where on par and the gameplay was more important, but now no matter how good PES would get they still wouldn't be able to compete with Fifa unless EA royally screws up the license. Mario Strikers went in a whole different direction, only caring about the base rules. It's still a sports game, but in no way a sports simulation like Fifa - and still can't nearly compete with Fifa. As a result of not being a simulation like Fifa it attracts a totally different crowd, too (though there certainly are crossovers).