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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - EA: "There isn't much room for other titles than 1st party on Switch"

DonFerrari said:
padib said:

I heard that their ports on Nintendo consoles are lazy and limited in features. You might be right to say people wouldn't buy them anyway.

I wouldn't blame the buyers for it though :S

My theory on this (foil hats on please) is that EA needs PS and Xbox to promote their brand, style of content, at times aweful business practices and make easy money, and Nintendo's success goes counter to that trend. It's true that the two markets (Nintendo's and the other two's) are complementary, but they are also competing for marketshare. In which case, the noise of the popularity of one could affect the success of the other. So, Nintendo being big right now could take share away from the other market, and that is bad news for EA. For that reason, they are playing on the enemy team. There is a conflict of interest.

I do think Nintendo owners not buying EA games is totally right, I don't buy them as well (may buy one or another not knowing it was EA).

I'm just explaining EA reasoning, they see the effort they need to put doesn't match the profit and thus won't bother making it, nothing wrong with it as well. They make their profit of the PS4/X1 owners that buy their games.

Stellar_Fungk said:

I would buy Mass Effect Trilogy on the Switch.

Sure there are one game or another that would buy one game or another from EA on Switch. But in general looking at sales from 3rd parties, focus on what EA sell in PS4/X1 versus what the games they released on Switch they don't have many reason to really try.

Pemalite said:

If they build a product people want, people will buy it.

If they did a Dragon Age: Remastered+Dragon Age 2+Dragon Age: Inquisition collection on Switch I would buy it.

If they did a Mass Effect Trilogy I would buy it.

If they released Battlefield 5? Probably pass.

They need to release games people actually want on Nintendo platforms, Nintendo platforms also tend to target a different demographic, EA needs to recognize that... And value-incentivize releases to draw Nintendo consumers in...
Because lets face it, Nintendo games are more expensive than Xbox or Playstation and definitely more so than PC... So those who already own Xbox, Playstation or PC and the Nintendo Switch are probably going to be more inclined to buy games on those non-Nintendo devices instead, unless you provide something that those other platforms don't have.

It's not the fault of Nintendo or Nintendo's Platforms, it's the fault of EA not adhering to market conditions and thus have simply given up and resorted to complaining instead.

EA recognizes it, that is exactly why they aren't really interested in making games for Switch. They rather use safe projects with easy to estimate profit that meets their needs on PS4/X1 than making exclusives to Nintendo (even multiplats that would focus more on Switch demographic, that way they would lose more sales on the other 2 than really gain) or port the games that wouldn't sell well.

What we have here is people refusing to accept EA logic because it is contrary to their wish of every dev releasing on Nintendo even if they hate the company and don't like any of their games.

Amazing how some still try to defend EA's shenanigans.



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EA has never played in the success or failure of a Nintendo system. Just as an example. EA support was gone on Wii U after launch. They also supported Gamecube pretty decently. They also only put 1 or 2 madden games on DS, other than that EA only put out shovelware. No one has ever said Boogie and My Sims Racing was a factor in DS sales.
EA supported PS Vita better than 3DS.

That said EA is missing an opportunity to have portable Dead Space, Mirrors Edge, Mass Effect. I do think those would sell.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

padib said:

Don, I understand that they are free to manage their profits as strategically as they see fit. The issue though is that they seem to be unable to understand how to make money on a Nintendo console, and their quote highlights that. To say that only 1st party games sell well on Nintendo consoles is a gross misunderstanding on their part of what is actually happening, why they are unsuccessful on Nintendo consoles.

I totally agree that they are either unable to understand how to profit (on their expectations) on Nintendo HW or that they understand what they need and don't want to do that (that it could lead to less total profit/investment). That isn't a defense of EA or their practices, but to deny that there isn't much room for 3rd party compared to 1st parties on Switch is also undeniable (and not a problem for me, even on PS4 I buy much more 1st party than 3rd party even though there is like 100x more titles from 3rd parties and most of the top sellers there aren't Sony).

And yes I do think most Nintendo titles are better than most 3rd party games.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

Honest question. Why do people care so much? It's not like you're missing much. Respawn is the only devs from that side that seem to kinda know how to make decent games anyway. What games from EA would you want?



DonFerrari said:
padib said:

Don, I understand that they are free to manage their profits as strategically as they see fit. The issue though is that they seem to be unable to understand how to make money on a Nintendo console, and their quote highlights that. To say that only 1st party games sell well on Nintendo consoles is a gross misunderstanding on their part of what is actually happening, why they are unsuccessful on Nintendo consoles.

I totally agree that they are either unable to understand how to profit (on their expectations) on Nintendo HW or that they understand what they need and don't want to do that (that it could lead to less total profit/investment). That isn't a defense of EA or their practices, but to deny that there isn't much room for 3rd party compared to 1st parties on Switch is also undeniable (and not a problem for me, even on PS4 I buy much more 1st party than 3rd party even though there is like 100x more titles from 3rd parties and most of the top sellers there aren't Sony).

And yes I do think most Nintendo titles are better than most 3rd party games.

This is still a misrepresentation. 3rd-parties as a whole have a lower share on Nintendo platforms, because

  1. best-selling 3rd-party titles do not release on Nintendo-platforms, including Switch
  2. Nintendo titles do better than Sony/MS-titles

But that doesn't mean much in the bigger picture. Because for a game dev the question is: will my game sell on Switch. And for most games that released on Switch and also on other platforms the answer is: yes, it sells and often sells better than on other platforms. For that answer it doesn't matter that a non-existing RDR doesn't sell on Switch, or that a Mario Kart sells 20 million (in the same way as the same dev doesn't care that on PS4 RDR2 sells 20 million). I mean, the argument could easily be: most game devs have no space on PS4, as most of it's game sales are dedicated to Call of Duty, GTA and Red Dead Redemption. But in actuality that doesn't matter so much, except you try to directly compete with these titles.

And well, on Switch even titles that directly compete with Mario Kart do pretty well. For instance Crash Team Racing did not worse on Switch than on Xbox One, despite Xbox not having Mario Kart. Team Sonic Racing apparently sold similar on Switch and PS4, but again PS4 has no Mario Kart.

So the existance of great selling Nintendo titles is actually not of importance, important is how much your game sells. That can be answered differently for different games, but I am pretty sure of EA's catalogue, the Sims would do pretty well on Switch. Probably also Dragon Age and Mass Effect, but I am pretty sure about the Sims. FIFA and Battlefield on the other hand probably will not find as much customers on Switch.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

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oniyide said:
Honest question. Why do people care so much? It's not like you're missing much. Respawn is the only devs from that side that seem to kinda know how to make decent games anyway. What games from EA would you want?

Black&White, Command&Conquer, Dragon Age, Dungeon Keeper, Plants vs. Zombies, Theme Park, Ultima, to name a few. EA actually has a broad range of great IPs. And only remastering one of the older titles of these series would not break the bank, but probably bring in decent sales.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]

Mnementh said:
oniyide said:
Honest question. Why do people care so much? It's not like you're missing much. Respawn is the only devs from that side that seem to kinda know how to make decent games anyway. What games from EA would you want?

Black&White, Command&Conquer, Dragon Age, Dungeon Keeper, Plants vs. Zombies, Theme Park, Ultima, to name a few. EA actually has a broad range of great IPs. And only remastering one of the older titles of these series would not break the bank, but probably bring in decent sales.

Ok, but from what I've seen they kinda been ruining those IPs anyway. (especially Dungeon Keeper) but yes they could put more stuff on Switch and not hurt the bank, but they are barely putting those games on systems they do support.



oniyide said:
Honest question. Why do people care so much? It's not like you're missing much. Respawn is the only devs from that side that seem to kinda know how to make decent games anyway. What games from EA would you want?

Pretty much.

Mnementh said:
DonFerrari said:

I totally agree that they are either unable to understand how to profit (on their expectations) on Nintendo HW or that they understand what they need and don't want to do that (that it could lead to less total profit/investment). That isn't a defense of EA or their practices, but to deny that there isn't much room for 3rd party compared to 1st parties on Switch is also undeniable (and not a problem for me, even on PS4 I buy much more 1st party than 3rd party even though there is like 100x more titles from 3rd parties and most of the top sellers there aren't Sony).

And yes I do think most Nintendo titles are better than most 3rd party games.

This is still a misrepresentation. 3rd-parties as a whole have a lower share on Nintendo platforms, because

  1. best-selling 3rd-party titles do not release on Nintendo-platforms, including Switch
  2. Nintendo titles do better than Sony/MS-titles

But that doesn't mean much in the bigger picture. Because for a game dev the question is: will my game sell on Switch. And for most games that released on Switch and also on other platforms the answer is: yes, it sells and often sells better than on other platforms. For that answer it doesn't matter that a non-existing RDR doesn't sell on Switch, or that a Mario Kart sells 20 million (in the same way as the same dev doesn't care that on PS4 RDR2 sells 20 million). I mean, the argument could easily be: most game devs have no space on PS4, as most of it's game sales are dedicated to Call of Duty, GTA and Red Dead Redemption. But in actuality that doesn't matter so much, except you try to directly compete with these titles.

And well, on Switch even titles that directly compete with Mario Kart do pretty well. For instance Crash Team Racing did not worse on Switch than on Xbox One, despite Xbox not having Mario Kart. Team Sonic Racing apparently sold similar on Switch and PS4, but again PS4 has no Mario Kart.

So the existance of great selling Nintendo titles is actually not of importance, important is how much your game sells. That can be answered differently for different games, but I am pretty sure of EA's catalogue, the Sims would do pretty well on Switch. Probably also Dragon Age and Mass Effect, but I am pretty sure about the Sims. FIFA and Battlefield on the other hand probably will not find as much customers on Switch.

You are basically using absence of evidence as evidence of absence.

The pubs release what they believe will make good profit (thus why you have somewhat split number of titles that sell better versus PS4 and vice-versa), but the games that sell 20M on PS4 wouldn't be release on Switch and if they were they wouldn't probably cross 5M.

The list of releases on Switch barely have any 3rd party crossing 2M.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

DonFerrari said:
Mnementh said:

This is still a misrepresentation. 3rd-parties as a whole have a lower share on Nintendo platforms, because

  1. best-selling 3rd-party titles do not release on Nintendo-platforms, including Switch
  2. Nintendo titles do better than Sony/MS-titles

But that doesn't mean much in the bigger picture. Because for a game dev the question is: will my game sell on Switch. And for most games that released on Switch and also on other platforms the answer is: yes, it sells and often sells better than on other platforms. For that answer it doesn't matter that a non-existing RDR doesn't sell on Switch, or that a Mario Kart sells 20 million (in the same way as the same dev doesn't care that on PS4 RDR2 sells 20 million). I mean, the argument could easily be: most game devs have no space on PS4, as most of it's game sales are dedicated to Call of Duty, GTA and Red Dead Redemption. But in actuality that doesn't matter so much, except you try to directly compete with these titles.

And well, on Switch even titles that directly compete with Mario Kart do pretty well. For instance Crash Team Racing did not worse on Switch than on Xbox One, despite Xbox not having Mario Kart. Team Sonic Racing apparently sold similar on Switch and PS4, but again PS4 has no Mario Kart.

So the existance of great selling Nintendo titles is actually not of importance, important is how much your game sells. That can be answered differently for different games, but I am pretty sure of EA's catalogue, the Sims would do pretty well on Switch. Probably also Dragon Age and Mass Effect, but I am pretty sure about the Sims. FIFA and Battlefield on the other hand probably will not find as much customers on Switch.

You are basically using absence of evidence as evidence of absence.

The pubs release what they believe will make good profit (thus why you have somewhat split number of titles that sell better versus PS4 and vice-versa), but the games that sell 20M on PS4 wouldn't be release on Switch and if they were they wouldn't probably cross 5M.

The list of releases on Switch barely have any 3rd party crossing 2M.

Actually, I present the games, that are actually there as evidence, that 3rd-party games sell. EA is actually using the absence of evidence as their main argument. You do with your closing statement, because not much of the games that released on Switch have sold more than 2M on other platforms, and those who are are mostly late ports (Skyrim) or seriously diminished versions (FIFA Legacy). I instead argue with games that are actually released on Switch, and that do as well or even better than their releases on other platforms.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]

oniyide said:
Mnementh said:

Black&White, Command&Conquer, Dragon Age, Dungeon Keeper, Plants vs. Zombies, Theme Park, Ultima, to name a few. EA actually has a broad range of great IPs. And only remastering one of the older titles of these series would not break the bank, but probably bring in decent sales.

Ok, but from what I've seen they kinda been ruining those IPs anyway. (especially Dungeon Keeper) but yes they could put more stuff on Switch and not hurt the bank, but they are barely putting those games on systems they do support.

Yeah, I know they don't do much with these IPs, but you asked which stuff we care about. And it would be easy for EA. Look at Capcom and Square, who actively looking through their basement which old titles they could release next. I mean, I knew Capcom recycles Resident Evil as much as possible, but Dragons Dogma was a surprise, and I am happy about it. Similar with all the old Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest titles. Back in the day I played on PC, so I missed these, so I am actually happy about these ports. EA could so easily do the same and release a port of Dragon Age or a remaster of Dungeon Keeper, and many people would happily buy that.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]