Is the Wii so hard to figure out? I just wonder sometimes if people want to make something that will not sell well ... just to "prove" that something will not sell.

There does seem to be a lot more depth to the Wii game ... rather than a special mode, new buyer only DLC nature of Jam for purchasers of NBA Elite 11. Still though, it does make your head scratch -- take an exclusive with fanfare, and then give wanted features to the later versions on other consoles while not putting it in the first version. 

Is EA taking lessons from Capcom? (RE4 PS2 ref).

Mike from Morgantown

It's not so much the reduction of being exclusive but the means of simple acquisition on the other consoles. 

And Mike, I've pondered that one for years.  Back in the GC days, publishers made many moves that seemed to suggest that very speculation.

Well we'll have to see which sells better. At the very least it would show whether online matters with sports.

It's retarded.  And it absolutely devalues the Wii version.   I'd rather have online than the fuller features of the Wii version, however, I'm not buying a game I don't want to get a gimped version of a game I do either.

If the Wii version had online I'd pay full price for it (or a full featured 360 version).   As is, I'll get it for $20 when it gets there, or NBA Elite for $20 (as long as I can still get NBA Jam of course).

Can not understand EA's thinking on this at all.   Bizarre.

EDIT: So this was an exclusive game for the Wii, and now the Wii version is missing a feature we've wanted most and can now be found on the other consoles and it's been axed for no apparent reason? Nice, EA!

And LordoftheNightKnight, don't even talk to me, because I know you want to, and I don't feel like bothering with you.

Not quite, it's still sorta exclusive to Wii, as the HD versions lack any sort of career mode and other features and is only available as a downloadable bonus for buying NBA Elite new.  However the HD bonus version of Jam has full online while Wii has none.

As the Sherlock Holmes saying goes, "after eliminating the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the truth".

So what remains is: EA is on a mission to badly hurt the Wii.

There's Dead Space Extraction, a well known in advance failure the moment it was announced it will be on rails. No matter how Wii detractors like to present it, it was clear to almost anyone who enjoys their Wii that no matter what the reviews or quality of the game, it was going to fail. Badly. And yet at EA they used it as justification to stop "hardcore game" development for Wii, and managed to badly scare anyone else in the industry who before that still had some faith.

And now it looks they're doing it for "core" games. Let's show 3rd parties they shouldn't develop any game for the Wii, not only hardcore, but also classic franchises. Yes the HD version is not a full version. But now neither is the Wii, in a way that really matters to anyone that has an HD console besides a Wii (or that, god forbid, was considering the Wii for this game)- it doesn't matter that the original didn't have online, what matters (and is more visible) to the average buyer is that the "free" HD version does have online. So this game will fail, and, mark my words, EA will "draw conclusions".

Ever since they made that statement, they've been making Madden look like a cartoon.

So, in other words every version of this game will be gimped one way or the other.

Job well done!

The HD version will have the remix mode from the Wii version after a month or two.
Oh, and it'll be available to download from PSN/XBL for like $10 (or whatever games cost there)