In an article at CVG, an anonymous EA source reveals that Nintendo’s strained relationship with EA was gone before it started, thanks to EA’s focus on games that only sell blockbusters. The article calls for many changes to be made at Nintendo, including modernizing their direction for their platforms and listening to what gamers want, rather than rehashing the same IPs over and over.
“Nintendo was dead to us very quickly,” one EA source told me when asked about why the publisher fell out with Nintendo so soon after committing to the system.
“It became a kids IP platform and we don’t really make games for kids. That was pretty true across the other labels too. Even the Mass Effect title on Wii U, which was a solid effort, could never do big business, and EA like Activision is only focused on games that can be big franchises”.
The "kids ip platform" has a little bit of truth in it if any game not rated 18+ (or M or whatever you call it) is a kids game. But Nintendo games sell better than crappy sports titles and shooters because they are of higher quality and more fun, not because they are suitable for kids. Oh well we all know EA are just being babies anyway.
