EA Backs Wii With Six Game Titles

Electronic Arts fully jumped on the Wii bandwagon and is demonstrating its support of Nintendo,s next gen game machine by announcing that six titles will be released for the Wii. Among the titles will be Madden NFL 2007, a new Harry Potter game, a new addition to the SSX franchise, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf, Need for Speed Carbon, and The Godfather game.John Schappert, senior vice president at EA, enthusiastically gave support for the Wii by saying, "Once we started to experiment with Madden on Wii, there was an explosion of innovation. Everyone in the studio is energized by the creative opportunity afforded by both the hardware and controller.”
EA,s plan to release franchise titles during the first volley of Wii games is a repeat of EA,s de facto policy in the game business. Industry watchers have attributed Electronic Arts, steady decline in the game industry to its reluctance to develop and produce original IP (intellectual property) titles while funneling massive resources and energy into numerous sequels of old game titles instead.In May of this year, EA seemed to be turning the corner in realizing this problem and stated its intent to move away from its strategy to pump out franchise after franchise by saying, “EA is moving away from licensed properties and committing our resources to wholly-owned IP, created in our own studios. Wholly owned properties allow better financial margins and more creative control to develop the type of games that consumers want."However, EA,s regression back into its dependency upon game sequels is an indication that the company is not yet ready to make the big jump from the secure nest of game franchises and into the air of independent game development.