Topic: Right when you think EA wasn't a crap company..............

This is extremely unlikely for any remotely well known franchise on Switch. Or on any remotely successful platform ever.

@spizzamarozzi Proof that there's no audience for these games on Switch?

Although, yea, I agree that @spizzamarozzi is grossly underestimating how well the game CAN do on the Switch, I also think you've got some sort of happy glasses on.

People like the Switch, yea, but to say the "entire industry" is "captivated" by it is... a stretch, objectively and subjectively. We've already seen a week in Japan where Switch sales dipped back down well below what the PS4, a console that has been out for many years now, was selling. You can cry "stock!" all you want, but the truth is that, as far as I know, neither you or me or anyone on this forum has direct knowledge of Switch stock per region.

Yea, some people MAY get the Switch version of these sports games like FIFA and NBA 2k for portability, but make no mistake: the Xbox and PS versions are going to FAR outsell the Switch version. But you're acting like it's going to be even remotely close... it's not, dude. Even if the Switch had nearly the same install base, I'd still put my chickens in the Xbox/PS basket for sales simply because of the market those systems attract.

Don't believe, fine. Not long now for us all to wait and see.

@rallydefault I would agree, but Japan? Hundreds of people in line for a lottery with a 1 in a 100 chance to win a Switch. If it dips below the average for a week, then yes, I think it's safe to say it's due to stock issues.

Sounds like a time issue to me. Not sure it warrants some of the more histrionic reactions.

@kkslider5552000 with "a few thousand copies" I obviously mean "between 500.000 and 750.000", which is nowhere near enough to justify a proper port of a huge franchise like FIFA. There's only 5 million Switches in the world, probably less than 1.5 million units in Europe (the only continent where FIFA really sells). Based on these numbers, could you really estimate better sales?

The point is that the audience of these massive online sport games tends to go where there is ALREADY a large and established audience. People go bonkers over here for FIFA to the point of buying the console just for that one game, and obviously everybody wants to get the version everybody else is playing so they can play online and join the community. Also don't forget that the PS4 is by far the most popular and most affordable console in the world right now, and in Europe it often gets bundled up with FIFA, which is an enormous incentive.

And FIFA is just too closely associated with Sony for people to take the chance of getting it on a console very few people have yet, and whose online community for the game may deplete in 6 months. Most of the people simply won't bother and keep playing it on PS4 because most of their friends won't bother and keep playing it on PS4. 90% of the people EA makes FIFA for, don't give a damn about Zelda, Fire Emblem, Arms, Xenoblade and all those kind of games anyway.

However, people who will buy it for the portable experience, they'll get their money's worth anyway - the game is functional and has local co-op, so you can take it with you and play it with your friends at the pub in tabletop mode. The game might as well sell two million copies based on portability alone, who knows (although, you have to sell the consoles before you sell the games). But if you want to play it at home and online, you have either the option of going with the well established, circa 12 million users community on PS4, or the yet-to-be-created online community on a console made by a company with a laughable track record of third party support. Which one sounds like a better choice?

@IceClimbers no I don't have proof that there is no audience. Do you have proof that there is one??

The problem with that logic is that EVERY week in Japan has been that way (with the ticket system), and the system was selling much better AND better than the PS4 during all of those weeks.

People who keep talking about stock like they work at Nintendo and have intimate knowledge of exact numbers and strategies are hilarious to me. You guys have NO idea. ZERO. Bah, you'll never admit it, so why do I bother?

Point is, I think it's only a matter of time before Switch starts to drop well below PS4 weekly numbers once again.

@rallydefault I don't have any idea how many stock there is each week, but I do know that I find it difficult to believe they're scrambling to get a Switch one week, only to ignore it the following week. Why did they suddenly lose interest en masse if there was plenty of stock left over as you say? You said it yourself, the Switch lottery has been going on since launch, it's clear that there's more demand than supply.

No, it doesn't obviously mean that. Liar.

tl;dr just because of that

@spizzamarozzi That wasn't apparent to me, I thought you were talking about maybe 25 to 40k.

@Octane
Well, your post is kind of difficult to respond to when you're juxtaposing words like "scrambling" with "ignore." Obviously they didn't "ignore" the Switch during the lower week - that's ridiculous. Why use a word like that? It doesn't add anything of substance to the discussion.

The lower week of sales, I believe, is indicative of the norm we'll be seeing sooner rather than later. The system is still new, just about half-a-year old right now, and I think the siren's song for new tech is starting to wear off. Even the Wii U sold pretty well for a few months (though Switch has been selling very well for longer, I readily admit).

Remember, my post was all in response to that other dude who basically made the Switch out to be the system that has completely "captivated" the "entire industry," which I'm saying I disagree with due to my reason given earlier in this post. It's doing well for now, and that's great, and even if its sales fall to steadily remain behind the PS4 every week, I'm sure it will still be profitable for Nintendo. But making the system out to be this amazing, heaven-sent machine is just erroneous, ESPECIALLY when you use that "fact" as a bargaining chip in trying to reason that 3rd-party sports software will be successful.

Well to be fair, the so far consistent success of 3rd party software might as well be a miracle.

@rallydefault Remember that it's still a handheld and even the Wii U did ''OK'' in Japan (compared to other home consoles). I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Switch outsold the PS4 in Japan eventually. If there's one region where it has the chance of becoming the best selling console, it's Japan. I also agree that it's too early to tell where the system is going to be in a few years from now (well, it'll do better than the Wii U, that's for sure). I just don't think we'll be seeing signs of any slow down this year yet, definitely not in Japan.

The only thing I like from EA was when they made MySims, the cutest game from EA for Wii and NDS ever, and that convinced me to buy Wii + I started to learn to draw Chibi characters based on MySims proportion (since year 2009).

Also, I was surprised when EA could published also Girlie / Kiddie games like these on both Wii and NDS. I can say it was a Brilliant ideas, but too bad not really 100% awesome.

And guys, Remember. EA games are not just typical games for Males only. Just look at those Kiddie / Girlie games. They might have some potential. And don't underestimate those games.

@Grumblevolcano Isnt EA and MS more in a partnership, why would Sony pay them to gimp it ?

There can only be one answer to this: Sony have too much money and wants to be fined a couple of billions for anti-competitive practices. I have a hard time finding another reason.

@Therad Another you say? Happen to have a source for that? I'd love to have some fun discussing that one with people

Given that it was recently reported that Nintendo's stock value overtook the total value of Sony's businesses, I find it hard to believe that Sony have the financial clout to bully the market in this way...I can't imagine that EA took the decision to make a separate version of FIFA 18 for Switch lightly either, given that they had to dedicate an entire arm of their business (EA Romania) to its development - surely a simple, lazy port would've been cost-effective & therefore the preferred solution? (..especially given that Sony have an exclusive marketing deal for FIFA, which is bound to have some kind of impact on sales on other platforms) ..I've heard that EA's new Frostbite engine isn't compatible with the Switch - I'm not the most tech savvy person around but, if that's the case, wouldn't that compatibility issue be Nintendo's fault?? ..as far as I can tell, if anyone is to blame for this 'gimped' FIFA (that I actually think looks pretty good!), surely it's Nintendo?

Ouya? ..oh, you said major platform - in that case, no.

@NaviAndMii That may be, but what kind of stupid thing to say is this? "With regard to Ultimate Team, Lazarescu told Eurogamer the team feared the large amount of content might overwhelm Switch players who haven't grown accustomed to all of the features that have been progressively added over the years."

That's like saying "Those untainted souls, that aren't used to our money-grubbing yet, and there for get less stuff" Excuse me EA? That's has to be the most laughable thing I've heard in quite some time.