At one point they thought the Wii U was a viable platform, but they stopped development because the direction of the Wii U changed direction. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a completely different game. You can't just put all EA games in one basket and just assume they will sell. You cannot be "absolutely sure" because you are not EA.
Crysis 3 was not being developed for the Wii U from the ground up. The amount of money they spent porting Crysis 3 to the Wii U is something only EA knows but it cannot be nearly as much as you think it cost.
Losses are a part of business, they are inevitable. Sometimes ideas need to be scrapped. This is very normal in business.
http://www.shacknews...lopment-stopped
http://en.wikipedia....tarCraft:_Ghost
http://wow.joystiq.c...ard-speaks-out/
I'm too lazy to find more articles but those get my point across just fine. It happens.
The point here is simple. They were almost done. Even if they only spent 500,000 to make the game, they could have easily made that up. Even if it doesn't cost as much as I think -- which is millions of dollars at the least -- then it doesn't make sense still. 20k games would have made up the 500k of development costs. And they would have made a profit, too (off that specific version). And to say it was cancelled because the Wii U was doing bad -- the game was cancelled either in Dec 2012 or Jan 2012, at the latest, and the Wii U started to do bad in Jan 2013. I say that because the Wii U version was ALMOST done, and the games were set to release in Feb (announced in March that the game "had to die"). And it's possible that almost finished means Nov 2012 -- which the Wii U was doing very well at launch. So, again, Wii U sells has very little to do with why Crisis 3 wasn't released on the Wii U. Crisis 3 poor sales EA couldn't have known before Feb 2013. The game wasn't released. So they didn't have the hindsight you and I have now.
It just doesn't make sense -- especially since they still released Need for Speed: Most Wanted in March 2013 -- that they would stop the development of Crisis 3 when it was almost done. That they wouldn't just release it. It just doesn't make sense. If they stopped development and didn't release Crisis 3 just because of bad sales of Wii U, then why not stop development and not release Need For Speed: Most Wanted?
And again, I am assuming here almost done means one or two months of being done. If almost done means 3 or four months -- THE WII U WASN'T doing bad then. So why cancel development because of good sells?
So, yes, this doesn't have to do with Wii U not selling well. At least not ONLY. If the Wii U starts to sell better, EA won't magically support Wii U. The only way they will is if the other factors -- whatever they might be -- become less of a factor. If EA starts to do better business, starts making money instead of loosing money, then expect better things from the company and probably more support. If not, and the other factors (I have my guess of what those are, but no one but EA knows the real reason) aren't factors any more -- then yes, of course EA will start making games for Nintendo. It's a business, if they feel they can make money on that platform, then they will try it. Assuming they think they can make money and that they can afford to try it. Again, I have before shown EA doesn't do well on any Nintendo platform, with hardly any game selling a million or more, and there is quote of someone at EA basically saying that is a reason for EA to halt development for the Wii U.
So to repeat myself one more time -- Wii U Poor Sales is not the only reason for EA to have cancelled Crisis 3 and other choices they have made regarding Wii U. There are other reasons. I don't think it's Bias -- I have never said that. I do think, however, there is a lot we don't know. A company hurting for money can't afford a business deal to go south. Especially if that deal meant them making a lot of money. That, in combination of EA past history on Nintendo consoles, Wii U poor sales post Jan 2013, and any other factor we simply don't know -- all point to low support form EA.
Whovian12 -- Nintendo Network ID.