Madden NFL 13 Wii U shipping without certain new key features

[garyopa]

EA doesn't consider the Wii U a 'hot product' for the holidays.



EA has confirmed in a Q&A that Madden NFL 13 for the Nintendo Wii U comes 'with some new features', but will lack some -important- others.

It looks like the upcoming Madden NFL 13 version for the Wii U, will leave out certain 'key' features from the XBOX 360/PS3 counterparts, like the new real time physics, Madden Ultimate Team and Online Team Play (you'll be able to play local multiplayer with up to five people, only).

This was confirmed by game producer Yuri Bialoskursky, speaking with ESPN's video game writer Jon Robinson:

Robinson: But how can you say that online is such an emphasis and then not include features like Madden Ultimate Team?

Bialoskursky: Madden Ultimate Team is something that we're not going to have in year one. It's another one that we plan to add in as we go.

Robinson: You're killing me.

Bialoskursky: Again, we have other features that are really great. Connected Careers is going to take a lot of your time. Being able to interact and play against other people online while you try and create a legend out of yourself or picking one of those old legends like a Vince Lombardi or a Barry Sanders and taking them through a career is fun. There is a lot to look forward to on the Wii U.

Considering everything suggests that the Wii U will be as powerful as the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360, gaming website Kotaku believes this doesn't speak very well of EA's relationship with Nintendo...

The snag holding back Ultimate Team on Wii U, by my guessing anyway, wouldn't seem to have anything to do with the capabilities of the console or the new Nintendo Network infrastructure. Ultimate Team's gameplay is basically a one-off online multiplayer match, just with really different rosters. What sets the mode apart is its marketplace, where packs of player cards are bought, traded in, auctioned and sold. Maybe there are some networking limitations involved, but the simplest explanation, to me, is that Nintendo and EA Sports couldn't come to an agreement on who makes how much money off these transactions—which has been a huge revenue engine for the label.

Regardless, EA Sports has had more than a year to iron out its multiplayer offerings for Madden NFL 13 on the Wii U. Further, I was told that the decision to move forward with real-time physics for Madden NFL 13 was made back in January. I can understand why that wouldn't extend to the PS Vita version of the game; there's no good answer for why the Wii U couldn't be included, if it really is as powerful a machine as the PS3 and 360. But none of this can be blamed on last-minute pressure when Madden stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Nintendo's new console more than a year ago.

AND actually, EA has just made clear "that they don't consider the Wii U a hot product for the holidays":

EA made it clear that they don't consider the Wii U a hot product for the holidays; Peter Moore, in response to an analyst question, said "you're probably right that Wii U got a lackluster response" at E3. More to the point, EA hasn't announced any other titles than Mass Effect 3 for the Wii U. No other big spending on the Wii U or next-gen consoles was noted, nor is their forecasting specifically calling out the Wii U as a major positive coming up. Translation: EA doesn't expect great sales from the Wii U.

Still, EA will no doubt be "opportunistic" as interim CFO Ken Barker noted. That means if the Wii U takes off, EA will jump on it, even though it means getting to the party late. This is pretty much how EA (and other major publishers) approached the Wii last time; little support at launch, but once it proved a hit resources were shifted to take advantage of it. The minimum 1-year delay this causes will not help the Wii U in its quest to get established. The other implication of this is that EA will not be putting great effort into specific Wii U development; any titles that are started are likely to be ports, without much resource spent on adapting to the gamepad controller.

So, what do you think?

NEWS SOURCE #1: Madden NFL 13 Wii-U (via) ESPN
NEWS SOURCE #2: Gimped Madden on Wii-U doesn't speak well of EA's relationship with Nintendo (via) Kotaku

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[Battlefield]

This is good news. Nintendo managed to get rid of EA on Wii-U!

Who want support from the #1 bottom company in USA anyway?

Need for Speed Recycled
FIFA Recycled
Madden Recycled

Oh.. Nintendo have never ever needed EA support to sell any console. Wii sold like hot cakes with crap EA support too the first 2 years.

[billysastard]

so it went from ea loving it and wanting to pretty much make it the base console for every ea title to "**** u" as quickly as nintendo told ea to go fu*k their greedy arses when ea wanted to make all nintendo's online services only usable through its own origin service.

i'll happily take no ea games over every game being yanked offline when its 2 years old, i really hope that the wii u sells like the wii did BUT that nintendo and all their customers constantly remind everyone about ea's pathetic behaviour so that the wii u remains an ea sales desert, if its a massive success then nintendo and its wii u buyers can sleep well knowing that they all contributed to grinding one of of the most vile companies in gaming into a most well deserved bankruptcy.

when i first heard this i too thought of the dreamcast situation where ea behaved just as childishly, i wonder if now having hoovered up so many companies and got so many exclusives that ea could be sued for breach of eu competition laws?

[Captain N1]

lol poor ea. Nintendo said FU and now your mad. poor baby huh ea.
We don't need your crap.

[DEDDOA]

In other words,

"We don't want to have to pay our dev teams to do any extra work so we are just stickign with a PS3 port for the Wii-U and 360, even if the Wii-U is capabale of so much more. We will however trip over ourselves to shovel out the drivelware ASAP if like the Wii, it flies off the shelves but like all the other publishers who put no effort into out Wii-U ports, we will then cry when they sell poorly compared to Nintendo's first party games that that actually give customers a reasonto buy the games"

You know it's going to be that way and whats more it will stay that way as well as given it sounds like as good as the Wii-U is it will be a tad behind the next MS and Sony consoles in terms of performance, so it will just recieve PS3 ports for it's entire life cycle so that they can still also make money off the 360 and PS3 as well for as long as possible.

You never know tho, they may get decent PC ports tho i doubt it, the PC got gimped on many games to make the PS3 and 360 look better, still higher res textures, resolution, better lighting and AA/AF with a bit of tessalation thrown in for good measure helped the PC versions (mainly due to the fact that likely the developers start with what in the end only the PC gets and whitle it down for the consoles until they get a decent compromise on looks and performace, so the improved assets are not any extra work).

[billysastard]

In other words,

"We don't want to have to pay our dev teams to do any extra work so we are just stickign with a PS3 port for the Wii-U and 360, even if the Wii-U is capabale of so much more. We will however trip over ourselves to shovel out the drivelware ASAP if like the Wii, it flies off the shelves but like all the other publishers who put no effort into out Wii-U ports, we will then cry when they sell poorly compared to Nintendo's first party games that that actually give customers a reasonto buy the games"

nope, they arent even chucking last gen ps3 ports across and its because 1) nintendo wont let them ruin the wii u by allowing origin to destroy it (and inflate the number of "origin users" that ea can falsely claim to have on the pc) and 2) because nintendo dlc policy states that additional download content should be ADDITIONAL to the games and not just stolen for paywalls or just extra profit with no extra costs.

[DEDDOA]

nope, they arent even chucking last gen ps3 ports across and its because 1) nintendo wont let them ruin the wii u by allowing origin to destroy it (and inflate the number of "origin users" that ea can falsely claim to have on the pc) and 2) because nintendo dlc policy states that additional download content should be ADDITIONAL to the games and not just stolen for paywalls or just extra profit with no extra costs.

That got me thinking, I really can't think of a single Nintendo first party game that has DLC as you get the full game when you buy it, I may be wrong but if there are then they are so few I can't think of any.

[billysastard]

That got me thinking, I really can't think of a single Nintendo first party game that has DLC as you get the full game when you buy it, I may be wrong but if there are then they are so few I can't think of any.

there are a few but as you say not many because at least until now nintendo said dlc would only be allowed if it added to an already complete game but they do seem to be letting that slip a little now with the speed run dlc packs for nsmb2 although obviously they arent part of the complete game i wouldnt say they were in line with the previous policy that dlc was for expansion packs and not maps / costumes etc.

the only exception to this being music tracks for those band / hero type games although you can buy them as disc based expansion packs.