EA pledges to be Nintendo's #2, Spore DS confirmed

39 Comments by James Ransom-Wiley Feb 1st 2007 9:25PM
Filed under: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Business

Speaking during a financial results follow-up conference call, EA CEO Larry Probst discussed the publisher's plans to increase support for Wii and DS. "Clearly Nintendo will always be number one on the Wii and Nintendo DS, but we think we have a realistic goal of being number two," speculated Probst, who added that EA's goal was to own 15-20% of the Nintendo platforms' market share.

Currently, EA has 15 SKUs in development for Wii and DS, including the now 'officially' confirmed version of Spore for DS; as if Will's word wasn't good enough. No doubt most of these games will be the usual fare of EA annuals, but there are "several" original IPs in the mix.

EA's devotion to Nintendo should not be mistaken for the publisher taking sides, as Probst was careful to note, "It appears as though as both Microsoft and Nintendo are positioned to gain some share, but we think Sony will continue to be strong... We will be provocatively supporting all of them." Provocatively, eh?

Tags: DS, EA, Nintendo, Spore, Wii

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Whirlo: Feb 1st 2007; 9:37PM

That's great. Now what about Sim City?

LK: Feb 1st 2007; 9:52PM

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/25/soft-ps3-sales-spell-trouble-for-ea-others/

Interesting...

Nushio: Feb 1st 2007; 9:59PM

I hate EA, but I will definitely buy Spore for Wii (Assuming its not a quick port made out of crap, like Kong was for the DS)...

ThatFuzzyBastard: Feb 1st 2007; 10:03PM

One of the biggest worries about the Wii is third-party support. Part of the problem is that it's awfully tough to compete with the best game development house of all time (that would be Nintendo), but also, what with the complexities of first-party versus third-party marketing and support, few companies think they have the muscle to stake real ground.

EA's obviously a big ol' exception to that, though. If they want to be the company that proves that non-Nintendo games can be a hit on a Nintendo system---and maybe even convince Nintendo to be a little more supportive to third-parties in general---more power to 'em. Even if the games will probably suck.

Martez: Feb 1st 2007; 10:10PM

Why no Spore for the Wii? I'm pretty sure that'd be great. They could downsize the graphics to N64 quality for all I care if the gameplay is intact.

Rob: Feb 1st 2007; 10:27PM

First you get the EA, then you get the Games, then you get the Wome....oh wait....

Crazylink: Feb 1st 2007; 10:27PM

There's no way that EA can be number 2 with the likes of Capcom, Konami, Namco Bandai, and Atlus around.

chenry: Feb 1st 2007; 10:29PM

Uh oh. Spore on the DS? I might have to abandon my EA boycott.

David: Feb 1st 2007; 10:30PM

Screw you EA, you put all your eggs into the PS3 basket and the eggs were smashed to bits. All the games EA makes are sports game, crap movie games and Sim games.

And Spore will be on every platform. Wil Wright said Spore will make it to everything like The Sims have but he wants to finish the PC version first.

tmmoore_nc: Feb 1st 2007; 10:33PM

Do you know what this means? It means Ubisoft is done for! Thank goodness EA decided to step in to put a stop to Ubisoft's horrible triple porting.

Jeff: Feb 1st 2007; 10:37PM

Pretty sure he meant to say - or did say - that EA would be *proactively* supporting all three systems. He either misspoke or was misquoted.

Rob: Feb 1st 2007; 10:38PM

After seeing what EA is trying to accomplish (and successfully I might add) with Wii, Ubisoft should be ASHAMED of themselves. Splinter Cell, Far Cry, Those Two Racing games....wtf. Ubisofts support looks like a joke now compared to EAs.

JRM: Feb 1st 2007; 10:41PM

Oh God, No!!

Nintendo, Please keep EA away from your systems! Let Microsoft take their licensed crap.

duncan: Feb 1st 2007; 11:01PM

i would love to see some linking of the ds version and wii version of spore
*drool*

Loque: Feb 1st 2007; 11:05PM

No. EA, GTFO my systems, my computer.

Go port your crap somewhere else.

Rubang B: Feb 1st 2007; 11:09PM

Well the way Spore works, (it's entirely single player, but creates all the other species from an online database of DNA strands created by other players) they could theoretically have the same database for Spore games on every single system. But they might just make a different database for each system if each system's Spore has slightly different nuances in creature design.

Steve 3.2: Feb 1st 2007; 11:45PM

It great to see EA beef up support for Nintendo systems. While some people make dislike the yearly upgrades that EA churns out, keep in mind that those games sell a lot. And a lack of key third party support can kill a console. (EA's decision to not make any Dreamcast games was one of the top reasons that console failed in the US.)

@#4 - Nintendo worked with EA (and many other 3rd parties for that matter) in the days of the GameCube to put Mario, Link, and company into non-Nintendo games. I would expect that partnership to continue and possible expand based upon this news.

RobertHMayfire: Feb 1st 2007; 11:56PM

We all now know who is Number 2 working for now. ;)

Sean: Feb 1st 2007; 11:58PM

EA, you're already number 2.

accidental: Feb 2nd 2007; 12:20AM

EA games for DS = Incredibly shitty
EA games for Wii = Surprisingly not shitty

It's quite unexpected to see EA doing a decent job on the Wii - controls and gameplay surviving and turning out great. Once Ubisoft finishes all it's crappy direct ports then hopefully their games will be decent too.

calthaer: Feb 2nd 2007; 12:22AM

Yes, EA is a big fat #2. Like "drop my kids off at the pool" #2.

Their codemonkeys would somehow manage to turn even Asteroids into blandomatic "fun."

Arbuz Chokaro: Feb 2nd 2007; 12:22AM

OMIGOSH.

Just as I buy a DS too. This is FANTASTIC. Now if only they would stop pushing back the Spore release date and finally get it out already.

By the way, I don't care who is publishing Spore at all, that game looks way too good to pass up due to hate for EA.

Rubang B: Feb 2nd 2007; 12:32AM

Yeah, I'm with chenry (comment #8) in the EA boycott department, but I'm definitely buying Spore. I'm not sure if I'm getting the PC or DS version (or both eventually in the long run). But I would even buy Spore if Satan were publishing it (oh wait, he is).

Will Wright and Brian Eno are heroes of mine. If they were working together on so much as a crossword puzzle in the newspaper, I would dig through their trash to find it and frame it on my wall. But no, they're making this double opus.

Cuja: Feb 2nd 2007; 12:40AM

Last gen game developer meets last gen game console. Maybe this will work out quite well. But EA is known to milk the shit out of anything. Then again this might work out quite well.

Revo: Feb 2nd 2007; 1:19AM

Some of you guys are being a little too hard on EA. Yes, they milk their franchises like nobody's business, but they've also produced some very solid series, like Burnout and SSX. I think they could produce some really good titles for the Wii if they set their minds to it.

tack: Feb 2nd 2007; 3:36AM

EA vows to finally finish the gamecube games they pulled the plug on and release them on the gamecube 2.0.

Mikeo: Feb 2nd 2007; 4:19AM

Who gives a damn if Nintendo consoles have a port of Spore when the fanboys try so hard to generalize?

Thank goodness the REAL goodies (Burnout, Mercenaries, Crysis, C[+]C 3) aren't coming out for the Wii or DS. Serves it just right.

Ikitsumatatsu: Feb 2nd 2007; 6:44AM

Whoa Mikeo! You sound just like a fanboy!

8dot3: Feb 2nd 2007; 6:46AM

I wasn't going to sit at my PC and play Spore, but I will sit out in a lawn chair, a plane, car, bed etc with my DS and play Spore. Looking forward to it!

Jake: Feb 2nd 2007; 8:18AM

Why is everyone so pumped for Spore on Wii? The controls could theoretically be almost as good as a mouse, but the game would be totally nerfed. I would rather play a 360/PS3 version with slower controls than a nerfed Wii version.

WedgeTalon: Feb 2nd 2007; 8:24AM

As much as I hate EA the company, this can only be good: EA *is* one of the largest development houses despite their practices. Firm support from them and good support from Ubisoft will do nothing but draw other smaller firms to develop for the Wii and DS. Which is a Good Thing for us (future) Wii owners.

F1ghter: Feb 2nd 2007; 9:06AM

@Mikeo: Burnout already came out on the DS. It sucked.

I think Spore is good news, but the way some people worship it you would think it's the holy grail of games or something.

I don't understand why everyone is bashing EA so bad. Yes, they have a ton of really bad games, but (as mentioned before) they have still produced some gems. The Burnout series is still my favorite racing series.

Goober: Feb 2nd 2007; 9:16AM

If you really want to buy Spore but hate supporting EA then wait a little while and buy your copy of Spore used.

Evan: Feb 2nd 2007; 9:32AM

"Why is everyone so pumped for Spore on Wii?"

Why is everyone so pumped for Spore, period? The game isn't even released yet on the PC. Will it live up to it's hype? It uses procedural generation algorithms, but that doesn't mean it'll be fun! We won't know until it's released, and we shouldn't talk about porting it to every systems under the sun until we know it's worth porting.

Mohan: Feb 2nd 2007; 9:52AM

This might be a good thing. I know EA isn't the best at what they do, but they are pretty big and might see more developers coming on and developing more games for the Nintendo Platforms.

Kane: Feb 2nd 2007; 10:05AM

EA is always #2. Shit, shit, shit.

Matt: Feb 2nd 2007; 10:46AM

While the idea of Spore on the DS excites me, I'm still skeptical of how it will actually work. EA doesn't exactly have a stellar track record as a publisher, especially when it comes to ports. Their efforts to port other franchises like the Sims to portable platforms haven't exactly been great successes.

Fatass of Kickassness: Feb 2nd 2007; 11:24AM

Jake, how would the game be 'nerfed'?

The PS3/360 versions of Madden 07 are 'nerfed' compared to the Wii version, if you ask me.

Covarr: Feb 5th 2007; 4:02PM

It seems to me that people are missing something big.

EA is a large company, divided into parts. EA Sports, Maxis, EA Kids, and some others.

It's been a long time since I've seen any EA Kids games, and those I have seen were on PC, and pretty good. EA Sports is kind of lousy. Maxis, on the other hand, is basically Will Wright's portion of the company. Pretty much any EA game with Sim in the name, as well as Spore, is from Maxis.

Were it up to me, I'd have Maxis increase production of games for Nintendo, and EA sports decrease production.

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