Does EA need to re-think its Wii strategy following poor game sales?

[Zeus]

EA's new Wii titles such as Boogie, Playground and Madden 08 have all been met with a fairly luke-warm reception by Wii owners. Boogie failed to make any kind of impact in its first month, while the Xbox version of Madden 08 outsold the Wii version by a couple of thousand units. Analysts have been probed for their thoughts on the matter and mostly comment that EA needs more time, while another analyst puts forward that sports titles are best suited to PS3 and Xbox 360 as Nintendo's market is more is casual/mainstream.



"These people are also not in the mainstream gaming audience, so they may genuinely not know about Boogie," Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter told GameDaily BIZ. "Let's see if it changes at the holiday. You media types are too quick to reach a conclusion based on one data point. Let's give this some time."

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian added, "I would characterize Boogie as an experiment, and part of their bigger plan to build share on Wii and grow the casual games portfolio. It seems that Boogie appeals to a fairly narrow audience, whereas titles like Playground or Spore could have broader appeal."

As for Madden's slow start on the Wii, analysts attribute the performance to the problems that all third parties face on Wii – first-party dominance – and the fact that sports gamers are probably better aligned with other more hardcore platforms.

"Nintendo first party titles are still dominating the charts for both Wii and DS, and third party publishers such as EA are having to fight hard to gain market share. Putting my gamer hat on, I have to believe that high quality games made specifically for the Wii and making good use of the user interface should be able to sell well," Sebastian said.

"Specifically on Madden, it seems that PS and Xbox are still the preferred platforms for sports gamers."


News Source: <A href="http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=17438" target="_blank">Gamedaily</a>

[pwntendo]

I think this is misguided. EA needs to re-think it's strategy on all consoles. Their games have been garbage for a while now, even on the 360 and PS3. When I pay for a game I don't expect to feel like a beta tester. The reason people aren't buying their titles on the Wii isn't because that version sucks it's because ALL versions suck. In fact, I'd be willing to best most of what they did sell on the Wii was curiosity buyers wondering if maybe the Wii controls would offset the suckitude of the game.

[Robotron]

I think this is misguided. EA needs to re-think it's strategy on all consoles. Their games have been garbage for a while now, even on the 360 and PS3. When I pay for a game I don't expect to feel like a beta tester. The reason people aren't buying their titles on the Wii isn't because that version sucks it's because ALL versions suck. In fact, I'd be willing to best most of what they did sell on the Wii was curiosity buyers wondering if maybe the Wii controls would offset the suckitude of the game.

I agree, but if you think about it they need the Wii sales. It has the largest install base out of the 3 consoles (well the DS and the PS2 really have the largest), but it could kill EA as a company since they are use to much larger sales to drive their company.

EA dying.....the clouds part and the sun returns.

[legendofphil]

IMO the problem is with the Playstation 1 and 2, its too mass market.
People will buy ****, so companies will make ****.
EA made an empire on ****.

[kcvfr400]

EA definately needs to rethink its wii stratergy as games like madden play well on the wii but will always get compared to the 360/ps3 versions graphically. They have as much as any other culprit just ported ps2 versions of games and added motion controls.

Alot of the people buying the wii clearly will not buy many games and don't care about the franchises EA has like fifa or tiger woods or madden. They just want something fun to do with the wiimote that either doesn't seem like a video game to play or is unique compared to games of the past.

There has and will always be a games company like EA that pumps out crap. Before them it was ocean who ruled the games world and pumped out games that mainly were bad.

[juanmiglesias]

there is a lot to explore yet, we are looking the top of the iceberg, we only can hope we get to the bottom too... it depends on studios to take full potential with wiimote, not too complicated just intuitive, for example i have never played a golf game in my life... but when i got tiger woods 08 dam i was playing like 4 hours straight..., also my 17 years sister got catched too.... by a golf game??¿¿¿... LoL... its simple like the real thing....the oposity of this would be rockstar table tennis for wii(if they keep that control scheme), i only told myself when i saw that..WTF??.... why dont use the twist control for curves?... topspin..?etc...speed... angles..thew wiimote can act as the real thing.. lets hope it gets redone..or that scheme was something for easy play..

its the first time in a long... LOooonG time that developers has to focus in new way of control the game.. for years its only been what button wil i use for actions.. shoot.. etc.. and make the best graphics possibles! with a good plot..

lets hope in a year wii can experience a new wave of control precision wii games:cool:

[grapeape]

Have any titles other than Wii Sports and Wii Play really sold anywhere close to the level they should based on the install base? The only other games I have seen sell consistantly is Mario Party 8. Metroid is doing a little better at almst 450k sold but generally if you look at the charts there are 4 million+ seller titles (Including Wii Sports) then a huge gap with most titles selling under 200k. This has got to be addressed somehow but how do you fix it? I feel like I contributed to the problem though, I gave 3 Wii's as gifts last christmas and none of the people I gave them to have purchased any more games for them, though they all play them regularly. At this rate Nintendo would have been just as well off if they had made a standalone game system with Wii Sports built in. Its great for Nintendo sales wise but if 3rd party sales dont pickup devs will hop off the bandwagon as quickly as they hopped on it.

[benny32]

EA games are selling bad on the Wii because the majority of nintendo fans can spot a turd from a mile away. Its in ninty gamers ethic to only buy good games.

This is great news. I hope ea stops supporting the wii so its game library wont be flooded with shovelware.

Also, Madden 08 didnt sell well on the Wii? Good job people, this just shows the majority of wii owners dont buy lazy shovelware.

[johnhummel]

EA games are selling bad on the Wii because the majority of nintendo fans can spot a turd from a mile away. Its in ninty gamers ethic to only buy good games.

This is great news. I hope ea stops supporting the wii so its game library wont be flooded with shovelware.

Also, Madden 08 didnt sell well on the Wii? Good job people, this just shows the majority of wii owners dont buy lazy shovelware.


That is the problem - EA is used to just making one decent game, then driving it into the ground. Why didn't Boogie sell? Not because Wii owners don't want a good music/dancing game - but because it was crap! The dancing stage was just "shake this". Take a look at Raving Rabbids - a music section in there that was plenty of fun (and will be expanded in Raving Rabbids 2).

When EA makes better games for the Wii, they'll sell - and that's all people like me who own a Wii (or a PS3 now) ask for.