EA Sports to concentrate on more casual games for Wii/DS
Perhaps more than any high profile third party developer, it was Electronic Arts who admitted that it was wrong to underestimate the potential popularity of the Nintendo Wii. The firm spent much of 2007 back pedalling to put its games out onto the format, and in a recent interview EA Sports’ boss reveals that he intends to focus on more, casual, experiences on Nintendo platforms.
Speaking shortly after the announcement of the boxing title Facebreaker, Peter Moore revealed to IGN that EA Sports had plans to focus more on casual gaming franchises, accessible to both new and established players:
IGN: Are there any plans to announce any more titles in the near future?
Moore: There will be more announcements that will be, if you will, licensed intellectual property that will be, quite frankly, looking at the more casual consumer that we see as a bigger force in the business. We need to do better on the Nintendo platforms, and we intend to do that. It’s a different type of game mechanic that the Nintendo Wii consumer, in particular, can play. Fight Night is a great franchise, you bet we’re gonna continue to create games like Fight Night. Round 3 was a phenomenal game for us and did around $140 million in revenue on a worldwide basis, but we think there’s a different type of consumer that loves boxing games and doesn’t want the authentic simulation game that we currently offer.
EA has for a while made its intentions clear when it comes to making inroads into the casual gaming market, most recently with today’s dating of Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox.
What are your thoughts on more casual titles from EA Sports? Let us know in the comments section below.
Its fun to play casual games of course, but I do not think a person buys the wii just for casual game time. We need more diverse games then just the cliche wii games out there.
They need to take full advantage of the wii’s ability to intigrate motion and exercise into the games. Though it is a bit odd actually ‘throwing’ passes in Madden, it really adds to the authenticity of it. The idea of making NCAA Football for the wii is great and the folks at EA and Tiburon ought to seriously consider making NCAA March Madness for it as well, obviously unless they have some odd exclusive deal with Sony and Microsoft. I think college b-ball game would sell big on the wii console.