I'm starting to wonder why EA Sports has been ignoring the Wii more and more.  They only seem to be putting over their "big" sports games and not the others, but the PS2 is still getting the games.  Now I know the PS2 has a huge market share and that could be a big reason why, but the costs for a port shouldn't be too great.

I think EA, and probably a lot of other companies have this mentality that a Wii game MUST USE the Wii mote in some way.  I think that's a ridiculous notion. :(  

Anyone else got any reasons as why some EA Sports game aren't being made on Wii as well?  Mainly NHL series. :(

They certainly haven't been ignoring the Wii.  Most of their stuff has been coming to the Wii and EA would never ignore something with the biggest install base simply because it represents money to be made.

Why they haven't released the NHL series on the Wii is a bit of a mystery. The control scheme is already laid out for them perfectly -- use the Mario Strikers Charged scheme. The only thing it uses motion for is hitting (which is very satisfying). Infrared pointing is also used for goal tending, so maybe they could work that into the game.

Propably because sport games don't sell well on Nintendo platforms; see, even Strikers struggles to surpass 500k in the US.

I think there are 3 reasons why you haven't seen more sports games from EA on the Wii

1. EA was not a heavy supporter of the Wii initially and didn't see the opportunities (how could you not have a boxing or tennis game on the Wii at launch?) and they haven't fully adjusted to the Wii's success yet.
2. EA doesn't have the creative people to see interesting ways to make certain sports work on the Wii.
3. And EA's unwillingness to use the Wii in a more conventional was makes it difficult to make certain sports work on the Wii.

Hockey (for example) shouldn't be that difficult to add some will controls to it ... Using Wiimote/Nunchuck you map B to shoot and A to pass, the analogue stick moves the player, if you want to pass to a particular player you point the Wiimote at the player and press A (otherwise it selects the closest player in the direction you're moving), to shoot you hold down the B button and you flick the Wiimote (a quick flick is a wrist shot and a long flick is a slapshot), to poke-check you get close to a player and 'poke' the Wiimote forward, to bodycheck a player you get close to the player an flick the Wiimote (the harder you flick it the harder the check is; timing is important if you want to be a feared checker).

They're not ignoring it "more"...the exact same games that came out last season are coming out this season...but they have failed to expand their support. I think HappySquirrel's list hits it on the head.

That's what I mean though. Why does everyone assume you HAVE to use the Wiimote for all Wii games? The stylus doesn't need to be used in all DS games either, but it just seems that companies are "forced" to find some way to utilize the remote/stylus in a game, or they just don't bother. I'd be happy with NHL 08 on the Wii if you only had to use the classic controller or GC controller. I'd rather support a current generation system then an older one.

NHL 08/2k8 on the Wii would have been amazing. Using the Nun-Chuck for movement and the Wiimote for controlling the stick is a great way to play the game.

Here is why EA is focusing *less* on the Wii.

Example 1:
Units Sold Madden 2008
Xbox 360 1,061,416 VS Wii 151,565

Example 2:
Tiger Woods PGA
Xbox 360 143,595 Vs Wii 65,165

Example 3:
Current EA Games in top 25 software sales.

#5 Medal of Honor: Airborne Xbox 360
#8 Skate Xbox 360
#9 Madden Xbox 360
#11 NHL 08 Xbox 360
#13 Madden NFl 08 PS2
#16 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 XBox 360
#20 Madden NFL 08 PS3 403,347

Face the facts, while the Wii systems are selling crazy well and so are the 1st party software releases. 3rd party software is a different story.

This one. Seriously, even when EA is like the biggest third party around, I couldn't care less about their games. FIFA gets easily 0wned by PES. I don't even like NFL, NBA or NHL... and I'm sure someone else can make better games about those sports.

What HappySquirriel said. EA had ZERO confidence in the Wii at launch. They had enough insight to post a motion-controlled version of Madden but that's about it.

After Christmas 2006/Early 2007 they saw the Wii's sales and blurped "UHOH!" Now they're struggling to add Wii support. They made a few ports (Godfather, some others I can't think of right now) and bought at least 2 Wii-exclusive development studios. And motion-controlled Madden will be on the Wii, every year (insert EA Sports rant here.)