Speaking at one of EA"s investor meetings yesterday, John Riccitiello called 2007 the publisher’s toughest year yet.
He stated, "The transition was tough because we typically have two to three platforms and a five year period… One of the biggest challenges, of course, was that not a lot of people anticipated the success of Nintendo that they’ve shown with their wand controller and their Wii. That got ahead of us a little more than our expectations."
After this, the CEO talked about how jumping on the "powerhouse console" bandwagon (PS3 and Xbox 360) wasn’t the best decision, after seeing how successful the Wii has been.
Despite this, the publisher still has the largest market share of sales on the Wii besides Nintendo. At the moment, only two of their sports franchises have made it to their "new generation" debuts on the Wii.
To me, I love this. EA is regretting their decision and publicly admitting that they underestimated the Wii and how it has become an important game console amongst developers. I believe EA just opened the door for some other guys to pop in and admit their mistakes too.
That isn’t to say anything derogatory towards the PS3 or the Xbox 360 (Riccitiello explained how the PS3 still has a world of possibilities), but when looking at today’s sale charts, its rather obvious how much of a jump the Wii has made since it’s release. (Whether you like the Wii or not.)
This fall Rock Band, Madden 08, and NBA LIVE 08 will be released for the Nintendo Wii. Let’s hope EA compliments these statements by ensuring that these games truly show what the Wii and EA are capable of.
