The Wii: Great For Nintendo, Not For Game Publishers (ERTS)
Not so much. Electronic Arts (ERTS), which released its earnings yesterday, breaks down how much of its Q4 revenue came from games for each of the major consoles:
Playstation 3 (SNE): 15%
Xbox 360 (MSFT): 14%
Wii: 7%
PlayStation 2: 5%
Those numbers aren't aberrations, either: With one exception, the Wii has been the least lucrative next-gen console for EA since its debut.
It's also not a surprise. Part of it is by design: Nintendo publishes almost all of the best-selling Wii games (Wii Play, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Wii Fit, Super Mario Galaxy, MarioKart Wii) itself -- its one of the things that distinguishes it from rivals Microsoft and Sony. Part of it is that third-party publishers like EA were caught off guard by the Wii's success a couple of years ago, and are still scrambling to create titles for the platform. And part of it is that many blockbuster games, like Halo 3 or GTA IV, don't have Wii versions, for varying reasons.
But EA isn't giving up on the WII: Earlier this month it released BoomBlox, which was designed with the help of Steven Spielberg. But we have a feeling it won't be Spielberg's most popular release this summer.
Without a question, the best "closing line" of any AlleyInsider article that I've read.
-Red
PS: You should hear about the time I hit on Kate in front of Steven during Passover '04.
and FYI, I have zelda, mario, kart, brawl, no more heroes, boom bloxx(freaking awesome! 1st EA game Im enjoying in over 5 years)trauma center, okami, metal slug and a few others that escape me...
point is publishers: MAKE GOOD GAMES AND THEY WILL SELL, and stop worrying so fucking much on graphics and start making a good experience for me to enjoy...
They all know how to beef up the Graphics to the highest levels for the Wii there shouldn't be a problem there. Therefor they need to focus on what makes the Wii different and that is the Wiimote.Then they need to focus on how to implement the Wiimote controls to make good gameplay. Gameplay is the most important so if they can get the gameplay up to par then they should be able to make there game special enough to compete with Nintendo.
The last thing I can think of is that they need to advertise way better. For example I have heard of BoomBlox but had no Idea it had been released. I think that some decent TV advertising would help there cause, but hey what do I know?
Furthermore, if you are using EA financial statment as a jumping point, how about learning background behind those numbers? Do you even know what or how many EA games were released for Wii during Q4? Only one game, and that was Ninja Reflex. PS3 in the other hand had such high profile releases as Orange Box, Burnout 5, Rock Band, and Army of Two. No wonder that revenue (not profit) was split that way.
Of course, these facts will be ignored, because they don't really suit the reality of this "article". After all, sensationalism and Wii bashing will give you street cred.
Just my 2 cents,
Nancy from Cheap Nintendo DS Games