Responding to anonymous comments that suggested Nintendo had become “dead” to the publisher, EA’s COO Peter Moore has voiced his support for the Kyoto-based outfit, declaring them to be “a great partner.”
“Don’t trust ‘anonymous sources,'” Moore wrote on Twitter. “Nintendo’s a great partner. They never have been, and never will be, ‘dead’ to EA…”
The publisher’s last title for Wii U was Need for Speed: Most Wanted U by Criterion Games, after which they stated that they had “no games in development” for the console and took a step back as Nintendo struggled to maintain any sales momentum behind it.
Moore stated that a lack of online engagement on Wii U meant that it appeared “out of sync” with the direction EA were pursuing, a world in which social interaction played heavily into the user experience.
Comments from an anonymous EA source had emerged yesterday, in which they had reportedly said: “Nintendo was dead to us very quickly. 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.”
I think this anonymous source should reveal himself.