60 replies to this topic

[Zinix]

EA’s sudden lack of commitment to the Wii U has the seen the decision mean that the console will miss out on fifteen games being built using the company’s new Frostbite 3 engine.

Although, it has now been revealed that it isn’t that the Wii U couldn’t support the engine, it’s just that there aren’t the necessary resources to dedicate in order to make it happen.

Such comments were made by Battlefield’s executive producer Patrick Bach, who had been discussing their current stance towards Nintendo’s console.

“If the Wii U was immensely popular we would probably put more focus into seeing how we could mitigate this, because it is a technical problem,” Bach explained to Eurogamer. “It is a technical problem at its core because the Frostbite engine is not designed to run on that hardware, and the hardware is quite different from the next-gen consoles and the previous gen consoles.”

Although the Frostbite 3 engine is designed to be scalable, evident through Battlefield 4 being released on current-generation consoles. So why isn’t the Wii U seeing similar support?

“From our perspective it’s not as powerful as it should be to be able to run a Battlefield game,” Bach responded. “Straight out of the box, as in Frostbite 3, it doesn’t run that well on the Wii U, which means it takes a lot of time and energy from us that would then take from something else.

“So, we made the decision to say, no, let’s not take away the focus from the PlayStations and the Xboxes and the PCs to do this. At the end of the day it’s about focus and priorities. If we could press a button to move it over to Wii U, of course we could make a Wii U SKU, but it would take some substantial time to do it. I know some fans get very upset when we say that, but it’s true. There’s a reason why not all games are on the Wii U platform.”

With Nintendo preparing a steady stream of first-party support, if the console’s fortunes change then DICE would openly consider reconsidering the situation.

“Absolutely. Of course. There’s no reason why we couldn’t focus down and make a Nintendo GameBoy version of it as well. It’s all about where you put your focus and how you scale things. Where do you scale down? Where do you put your team efforts?

“We need to do what is right for the franchise and what feels right in our gut. If you have to scale your game down in the wrong places too much, then you lose some of the core values of what your game stands for. It’s complicated. It’s more complicated than people would like it to be. I would love for us to be able to be on Samsung TVs as well, but we have to draw the line somewhere.”

 

 

http://www.nintendo-...aled-for-wii-u/

Seems like they won't bother to do it.

[Dragon]

Sign me up for a GameBoy version.

[TheUltimateWaddleDee]

I want a Gameboy version of Battlefield 4.

In all seriousness, this seems like what EA said; it needs to be more viable to develop for.

[MorbidGod]

This is what I been saying. And 3Dude. And others. EA doesn't have the resources or the reason to spend what it doesn't have. Wii U is different and takes work. However, if Wii U does meet the nine million user base - which it easily could this year - than EA will want to take advantage of that. And they will. Hopefully, If that happens, Nintendo supports them.

[Chrop]

Basically what  they're saying is, they can't be bothered to make it work on the Wii U.

Edited by Chrop, 26 June 2013 - 09:14 AM.

[BanjoKazooie]

I will paraphrase for those who didn't read it: " we are too lazy to bring games to wii u, battlefield four can be run on gameboy"
There, you get the just of it.

[Goodtwin]

Well, I can actually respect these comments, and I feel they are accurate.  Even Shin'en commented that the way you code for Wii U to get the best performance was a lot different than on 360 and PS3.  The Wii U leans very heavily on the edram on the GPU and the cache on the CPU.  There is no way a PC'ish game engine would every run very well on a propriety design like the Wii U.  Basically, they will put the work in if the market makes sense, but right now it just doesnt.  Im just glad they were big enough to come out and say why.  All the insinuations about the Wii U not being powerful enough were misleading, the architecture is the main thing holding back the engine.  With the proper work done, the engine could be tailored to work well on the system.    

[Keviin]

They don't make games for a console that sells bad, but they do make games for consoles that aren't even out yet... ok

[Wolf]

Well I would switch to BF4 on the Wii U in an instant if it were on offer as you could just see the gamepad being awesome as a load out screen etc.

It's a shame it really is, you'd think that EA and DICE would have become big enough to try and make it work and capture a whole new audience.

[Goodtwin]

They don't make games for a console that sells bad, but they do make games for consoles that aren't even out yet... ok

 

Thats a common arguement, but EA is pretty much banking on the PS4/X1 taking off alot quicker than the Wii U has thus far.  Not to mention that EA's games typically have a lower attach ratio on Nintendo hardware than Sony or Microsofts hardware.  EA is going to want to be confident that their highest profile games will sell at least 500k on the Wii U before they will come back to it.   

[GreenPenInk]

 We'll win them back. In a perfect world this would just mean they only wanted to do make games for the Wii U when they could do it right and maximize it's potential. However, I get the feeling this just means once Wii U sales hit a certain threshold they'll put out rainbowty ports.  

[GAMER1984]

If this is true a BIG blame goes to Nintendo. I know this is a pro nintendo site and I love nintendo. But making a console so custom and 1 not showing developers how to leverage the hardware and get the best results and make development easier and 2 just having to go against the grain and make a console that is different from every other home console out for what??? I love nintendo bit it seems for someone that claim they were going back after the core player and getting 3rd party support they made the worst decision with their hardware.

[NintendoReport]

If this is true a BIG blame goes to Nintendo. I know this is a pro nintendo site and I love nintendo. But making a console so custom and 1 not showing developers how to leverage the hardware and get the best results and make development easier and 2 just having to go against the grain and make a console that is different from every other home console out for what??? I love nintendo bit it seems for someone that claim they were going back after the core player and getting 3rd party support they made the worst decision with their hardware.

 

Nintendo themselves said that hardware was still being worked on until virtually as late in the game as you can get before launch and admitted that this was the issue for software being delayed. Miyamoto said it was tricky developing for a running target that kept moving. Hence Pikmin 3 and other titles being delayed.

 

Nintendo then finalized dev kits and were able to offer better help once the tools and everything fell into place. I'll revert back to the Criterion devs working on Need For Speed Most Wanted U, they were able to in just a handful of months push out a great looking and superior port with little headaches.

 

It appears most of these big guns had trouble (obviously) with initial Wii U hardware because they probably had early dev kits and tools with little documentation and Nintendo probably couldn't offer as much direct support as they wanted because they were still busy working on everything themselves. Now these big guns (EA and others) have man power and other resources working on other projects with Wii U on the back burner.

 

Things will change in time.

[GAMER1984]

Nintendo themselves said that hardware was still being worked on until virtually as late in the game as you can get before launch and admitted that this was the issue for software being delayed. Miyamoto said it was tricky developing for a running target that kept moving. Hence Pikmin 3 and other titles being delayed.

Nintendo then finalized dev kits and were able to offer better help once the tools and everything fell into place. I'll revert back to the Criterion devs working on Need For Speed Most Wanted U, they were able to in just a handful of months push out a great looking and superior port with little headaches.

It appears most of these big guns had trouble (obviously) with initial Wii U hardware because they probably had early dev kits and tools with little documentation and Nintendo probably couldn't offer as much direct support as they wanted because they were still busy working on everything themselves. Now these big guns (EA and others) have man power and other resources working on other projects with Wii U on the back burner.

Things will change in time.

In time we shall see but... We shouldn't get any hopes up. I'm gonna do my best to support ubi. Splinter cell, AC4, and watchdogs I will buy and support. I'm still just beside myself the negative mindset it seems most developers and publishers have for this console. Never seen anything like this in all my days of gaming. Nintendo has a BIG hole to climb out of and not having MK8 released this year was a mistake... It was a guarnatee system seller. I'm not sure If 3d world and DKTF is gonna do the job.

Edited by GAMER1984, 26 June 2013 - 11:56 AM.

[NintendoReport]

In time we shall see but... We shouldn't get any hopes up. I'm gonna do my best to support ubi. Splinter cell, AC4, and watchdogs I will buy and support. I'm still just beside myself the negative mindset it seems most developers have for this console. Never seen anything like this in all my days of gaming. Nintendo has a whole to climb out of and not having MK8 released this year was a mistake... It was a guarnatee system seller. I'm not sure If 3d world and DKTF is gonna do the job.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree with you. Just wanted to post about the problems Nintendo had with Wii U development and launch. I am in the same boat here and will order all those games for Wii U.

 

I think MK8 surely would of helped like you said for Xmas, I expect to see 3D world bundled for the holiday season and that can be a pretty good thing parents will pick up for their kids.

[magiciandude]

OMG, make up your (1-UP sound)ing minds EA!

[MorbidGod]

Well, I can actually respect these comments, and I feel they are accurate. Even Shin'en commented that the way you code for Wii U to get the best performance was a lot different than on 360 and PS3. The Wii U leans very heavily on the edram on the GPU and the cache on the CPU. There is no way a PC'ish game engine would every run very well on a propriety design like the Wii U. Basically, they will put the work in if the market makes sense, but right now it just doesnt. Im just glad they were big enough to come out and say why. All the insinuations about the Wii U not being powerful enough were misleading, the architecture is the main thing holding back the engine. With the proper work done, the engine could be tailored to work well on the system.

Exactly. That was my biggest complaint. They were lying just to make it look like Nintendo was the bad guy. Well, the only thing Nintendo did was make there system unique.

I just hope Nintendo never used x86. If I'm going to buy a console I want unique hardware I can't build.

[Nintyfan86]

Am I the only one reading this as, "Lol, it could scale down to an NGage if you like crippled ports, but we don't have the resources".

I mean, unless it masters scaling across beyond four CPU cores, PSBone is in trouble.

[MorbidGod]

Thats a common arguement, but EA is pretty much banking on the PS4/X1 taking off alot quicker than the Wii U has thus far. Not to mention that EA's games typically have a lower attach ratio on Nintendo hardware than Sony or Microsofts hardware. EA is going to want to be confident that their highest profile games will sell at least 500k on the Wii U before they will come back to it.

Which, Xbox One and PS4 sales will slow whenever there drought happens. At some point, there won't be new games and everyone who wanted the launch titles has them.

The only questions is when will that happen.

In time we shall see but... We shouldn't get any hopes up. I'm gonna do my best to support ubi. Splinter cell, AC4, and watchdogs I will buy and support. I'm still just beside myself the negative mindset it seems most developers and publishers have for this console. Never seen anything like this in all my days of gaming. Nintendo has a BIG hole to climb out of and not having MK8 released this year was a mistake... It was a guarnatee system seller. I'm not sure If 3d world and DKTF is gonna do the job.

I think 3D World and DKTF will help sell tremendously. I mean, I know that every DK fan who bought the Wii version hasn't bought a Wii U. Why? Wii U hasn't sold five million copies. Same with 3D Land. Wii U hasn't sold 8+ million units. And guess what the biggest complaint is with 3D Land? Multiplayer. There is a post somewhere in the E3 forum stating when he got home all his kids can talk about is how awesome these two games are. That father - if he hadn't bought a Wii U yet - would just to play Mario with his kids. I'm buying Mario for that purpose. Guess what? His kids didn't care about Mario Kart. They have Sonic Racing.

Now, with that said, Mario Kart will sell bazzillions of Wii U's. That's a big reason why I think The Crew will get on Wii U. But, not having it this year won't kill Nintendo. They can - with Sonic Lost World, Sonic and Mario Winter Games, Pikman 3, DK, Mario 3D World alone sell enough Wii Us to get nine million at the end of the year. WHICH IS GOOD. The key is to let people know about it.

[GAMER1984]

Which, Xbox One and PS4 sales will slow whenever there drought happens. At some point, there won't be new games and everyone who wanted the launch titles has them.

The only questions is when will that happen.


I think 3D World and DKTF will help sell tremendously. I mean, I know that every DK fan who bought the Wii version hasn't bought a Wii U. Why? Wii U hasn't sold five million copies. Same with 3D Land. Wii U hasn't sold 8+ million units. And guess what the biggest complaint is with 3D Land? Multiplayer. There is a post somewhere in the E3 forum stating when he got home all his kids can talk about is how awesome these two games are. That father - if he hadn't bought a Wii U yet - would just to play Mario with his kids. I'm buying Mario for that purpose. Guess what? His kids didn't care about Mario Kart. They have Sonic Racing.

Now, with that said, Mario Kart will sell bazzillions of Wii U's. That's a big reason why I think The Crew will get on Wii U. But, not having it this year won't kill Nintendo. They can - with Sonic Lost World, Sonic and Mario Winter Games, Pikman 3, DK, Mario 3D World alone sell enough Wii Us to get nine million at the end of the year. WHICH IS GOOD. The key is to let people know about it.

Hope you right but with 3d land and dktf you have to remember both are letdown titles. Everyone on here was oh Retro is going blow minds and sow what the Wii U is about with graphics and how the 3d mario would be a show stopper... And neither of those things happen and we have these two games to thank for that.