EA's Financial Figures Reveal Dismal Wii U Software Sales

Well, they only released one Wii U game in 2013 - Need for Speed: Most Wanted U.

Plus with a gimped version of both Madden and FIFA with none of the new features that PS3/360 had, and an admittedly great port of Mass Effect 3 by Straight Right (though lacking the DLC), EA wasn't going to make bank at all.

They made nothing new with their own properties (through EA Sports), while Criterion (NFS:MW) and Straight Right (ME3) actually gave the ports a fresh lick of paint and noteworthy features.

The last game EA released for Wii U was NFS:MSU, which was 7 months ago What did they expect?

You cant make money off nothing, IMO releasing two games (which were ports at the end of the day) does not equate to support.

While EA themselves have released crappy ports (madden,fifa 13,fifa legacy edition) from a buisness perspective I agree that they should just stay away from the wii U right now they will only be loosing money.

If the wii U suddenly picks up in sales by ALOT and EA decides to comeback to the console and still release crappy ports then there just dumb.

None of the gamers like EA to begin with especially the fact that they buy companies and put them out of business.

"Our job as game creators and executives is to be where the gamers are. Frankly, it's as simple as that." Well I think this is disrespectful towards Wii U users. How they can expect their games to sell on Wii U if they release trashy ports of games released years ago and literally a copy pasta game that was FIFA 13 wich is exactly the same as FIFA 12. No wonder EA has the title of worst videogame company...

Funny how releasing only one game in the quarter, which was a enhanced port of a game everyone already bought 5 months prior, and seeing it not sell well is considered "validation" to not support Nintendo, not to mention that other systems have 20x the install base.

If EA truly wanted to get games sold on Wii U, then they should have made equal effort as they did with the rest of them. No delays. No missing content. No cheap tactics (like Mass Effect 3 on Wii U vs ME Trilogy on other systems "at the same price").

Unprecedented partnership

LOL EA

Two things that puzzle me here:

1) EA releases more games on other consoles, so basically this is like saying 10 games put together sold more than 1.

2) The 3DS is dominating the handheld market at the moment, yet EA still does a rubbish job of supporting it.

I've seen this article on a different site where it also states EA made more off the Vita than the 3DS... so if you go where the gamers are, then shouldn't you pull support for the Vita too?

What the hell? Did they expect to do better? So far they have released old games (Mass Effect 3), gamesdelayed games compared to the other versions (NfS Most Wanted) and rip offs (FIFA 13, or should I say 12?).
Who are they trying to fool? If you want profits you have to fight for them not wait for them to knock at your door and jump into your pocket.

To hell with them.

I'm surprised the percentage is that high, to be honest.

Partially their own fault though. FIFA 13 was FIFA 12, Mass Effect 3 came out the same time as Trilogy on everything else + no DLC, NFS was 5 months late and was and is almost impossible to get except for online, and what else did they release? Like I said, surprised it's that high.

I agree with worthy...

@Worthy If we believe Sony Vita owners buy lots of games for it so there is market. I personally have more than twenty games for it not counting PSP and PS1 games. However after the excellent Need for Speed Most Wanted port EA abandoned the Vita and they only released Fifa 14 Legacy Edition for it. Also I am not so sure if most EA games can find a target audience in 3DS easily.

What I can't understand is why, even though EA gets a lot of hate in the internet, why it has some of the biggest franchises sellwise.

The sooner EA dissolve and sell their development studios to those who will do something with them, the better.

Considering a dismal lack of games and quality of games on their part (EA).I'm surprised it's even that.

Tgis figure is irrelavent and EA talking crap. Considering ALL there titles bar one are of a really poor quality for the Wii consoles they're lucky that need for speed most wanted sold enough on a console in its launch period to amass even 1% compared to software sold on consoles that have installed bases of millions.
Ps3 and 360's install base totals 160 million worldwide. Wii u only 3.7 million global. That's a 2.4% market share. That means that proportinally nearly half of wii u owners have bought one of EA's 3 games. 2 of which were toss. THAT I'd an impressive selling figure for selling crap. If they put that figure down as a na result. They need a new driver at the helm. Of course te % of their total sales on wii u is gonna be low, what a silly argument.

@belmont I agree with you there as EA are doing well but you missed my point a bit.

The point I was trying to make is that despite the 3DS doing well, EA still does a rubbish job with it, so what makes people think that if the WiiU starts picking up, that EA will start putting more effort into WiiU games?

In my opinion if WiiU sales pick up next year EA will give WiiU users Fifa 15 Legacy edition and if Wii Fit U takes off they'll make an EA active: legacy edition, lol!

Well maybe if they supported the console properly they might have more success. Selling last years iterations of sports games with no improvements apart from kit and team changes, won't fool many people.

The sad thing about all this, EA are the ones currently in charge of the Star Wars brand

NO WAY! THEY RELEASED ALL THOSE GOOD GAMES ON THE WII U... Wait, you damn crap company, YOU DIDN'T.

EA is the anti-christ for Gamers, seriously.

They need to be where the Gamers are?
Well, i am one, and i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one that owns a Wii U.
Although i wouldn't buy any Game from them, not because there is no EA Game that interests me, but my reason being that EA are a fiend to all Gamers. Even if they would bring out a decent Game, i would never buy it.
Just look at some of their commercials.
We Gamers have to fight for our Games in a way, parents thinking "Games are bad!" aren't gone yet, and what do they do?
They advertise with that exact thing "You're mother sure would hate it!".
That's the way, tell our parents that games are bad, make it hard for us, or at least minors (i'm 25 and well, i don't ask my mother for a new game anymore XD), to get Videogames!

Let's release Mass effect 3 with no option for further dlc and charge the same price as the trilogy on the PS3 and 360. That summary is even better than the first two games! The only good game they made for the system was NFS which I gladly bought. The rest was the equivalent of shovelware on Wii. At least we will not be getting those classic even more crappy game series on Wii U. Unless Wii U sales turn around, Mysims games U!

This is stupid, There hasn't been any EA games for the Wii U since NFS MW.

@ImperfectDark

I know, I couldn't find NFS anywhere, I had to get it off ebay. Most people didn't even know it was on the Wii U

These figures are pretty pointless when they didn't actually release anything during this time frame.

Well, the Wii U install base is even smaller than Vita's so I think their lack of support is justified business-wise. Not making their image better though.

well.. they deserve it... as they dont want to support..

i dont want to buy their games.. not on pc, wii u or anywhere...

I paid my $90 for the download of NFSMW and all I got was a game that crashes more than the cars do when the game actually works

Sell us gimped games & get gimped sales. Frankly, it's as simple as that.

EA doesn't understand the nature of the Nintendo gamer, and they have ego problems. Remember "Create" which was supposed to be way more than what it was...the shoddy Sims 3 for 3DS, dumbed down version of the Spore games...we want content & quality. When they produce it, we buy it: NFS:MW is a great game, I'd like it on 3DS too--Tiger Wood Motion Plus version was a good game too---I hate being "held for ransom" by game publishers: "Buy our cr*p, or you ain't getting the good ones"-I'd rather not have any of them---there's plenty of great WiiU titles to keep me busy...

So they release like what? One game this year? And they're shocked that one game only sold a small percentage of their total sales for the year? And they're claiming THAT'S proof enough to validate their abandonment?

Yeah, they're just stupid.

EA's problems with the Wii U are not anyone's fault but EA's. They have not even come close to supporting the Wii U like they said they would, and that started from the beginning. By porting over the previous years inferior mainstays like Madden and FIFA, they did not exactly get off on the right foot.

The two best quality games EA released on Wii U (Mass effects & NFS) were already played and completed by gamers on other platforms. To rub salt in to the wound both games were already in the bargain bin on other platforms before they got there full release on the Wii U. EA has not released one top notch exclusive to the Wii U nor have they added a valid reason to purchase their product. Considering it was there employees that belittled the platform and their companies PR stance to create conflict between themselves and nintendo; I have no sympathy that it all backfired in resulting to minimal sales of anything EA produce. When The Wii U (and/or its successor) becomes successful again, don't be surprised to find that the bad blood your company caused leads to 20 plus years of boycott to which your competitors thrive from (see the Sun newspaper on merseyside and how other newspapers have thrived from it).

"EA’s decision to abandon Nintendo’s current generation home console has been validated with its most recent financial figures, which reveal that just 1.3 percent of software revenue in the last quarter came from the combined sales of Wii and Wii U."
Umm, no. They released zero games for the Wii U that quarter, or the previous quarter. The quarter before that they released one late port. Sales of nothing don't validate anything.

TAKE THAT EA! WE DONT GIVE A poopiedoodoocacadoggiepoop ABOUT YOUR GAMES
_{Watch the profanity please — TBD}

Whatever! Moving on from the corporate we only care about money company. I can't wait to play super mario 3d world. My holiday Wishlist is huge for Wii U this year.

I bought ME3 being a rabid Mass Effect fanboy. I also own ME1-3 on Xbox, PS3, and Steam. (There are differences dangit!) The Wii U version doesn't have all the DLC- they just didn't bother. That was likely the last EA game I'll buy on Wii U. "Lolz porting DLC is difficult, not many people will buy this game anyway.... wait how come no one bought our game?!"

I'm upset with EA this time because I have supported their games for years but recently they've offered nothing for Wii or Wii U except to tell people not to buy it. They made decent games with motion controls on Wii but someone at the company obviously hates Nintendo because they've been feeding Nintendo owners crap for a few years now..

It's quite re-assuring to know that the 100M Wii owners refuse to buy re-skinned FIFAs for their Wii!

No surprise, they are also in bed with M$.

Not surprising.

Very few are interested in EA's multiplatform titles on Wii U.

Do something interesting and platform specific, or be left out.

incomplete, outdated, broken games in not selling shocker

I really don't blame them at all. Development is going to be a cakewalk for Xbox One and PS4. The architecture for both systems are similar, making development turn around much easier. Then we have the Nintendo side of things, a power PC chipset designed by IBM (abandoned by Apple) and a touchpad Nintendo insists developers use for Wii-U titles. It's kind of a no-brainer here. Why would you allocate your development team to take on all that overhead? To me this goes way beyond EA, the Wii-U has to be a nightmare to develop for.

@Worthy I got your point about the 3DS, I just tried to explain why it may be profitable to make Vita games. The same applies to the Wii U. EA thinks there is no audience for its games and gamers that prefer its games have a PS3, X-box or/and a Vita. This may be real. I have a Wii U but there is no way I would never buy, for example, FIFA, Batman Arkham Origins, Injustice or Need for Speed on it except if they cost 10 euros or something. I don't know or care about X-box but PlayStation has bigger online community, trophy support, proper dlc support in both PS3 and Vita (even cross-buy in some cases on indie and first party titles).

So, as you said, they may release FIFA 15 Legacy Edition next year that will cost them no money to make because there will be minimal gain from the development of a new version.

EA doesn't invest into Nintendo then they're not likely to get their returns with ports, especially when you consider how small Wii U's install base is.

I'm done with EA for all but Bioware. Can't wait to play DAI on my PC.

EA cannot claim that developing on the Wii U is difficult when they should have capable Wii programmers still around. I think this goes back to that EA has an issue with Nintendo itself and has decided to punish them by not making games on the their systems.

EA cannot claim that developing on the Wii U is difficult when they should have capable Wii programmers still around. I think this goes back to that EA has an issue with Nintendo itself and has decided to punish them by not making games on the their systems.

Well, with dumbed down ports, someone with a Wii U and a ps3/xbox would clearly not pick the Wii U version. They set that up in part.
Besides the xbox can have their casual games (racers, shooters, sports) with the yearly releases.

@BossBattles

Another anti-Nintendo article on a Nintendo site.
Gamers are weird these days.Another anti-Nintendo article on a Nintendo site.
Gamers are weird these days.Another anti-Nintendo article on a Nintendo site.
Gamers are weird these days.Another anti-Nintendo article on a Nintendo site.
Gamers are weird these days.

I love how they don't release anything for 7 months, put out crappy ports of games, bash Nintendo at every chance they get, publicly come out and say they are avoiding Nintendo systems with new games like Fifa, Madden and Tiger Woods and THEN they release news like this! More reason not to buy EA games again. Plus if it's only 1% of sales if they didn't make money they certainly can't be saying it's because of Nintendo or the Wii U. Move on and keep putting out annual games that are not much different year after year. Pathetic!

When you offer people crap, don't be surprised when they don't take it.

EA bring us NHL games to the Wii U

@Sylverstone
Not to mention, Mass Effect 3 released at the same time as the Mass Effect Trilogy was available for other consoles - albeit at a cheaper price.

EA is smoking crack if they honestly think they are going to be making money on here after the way they shafted Nintendo fans over the past year.

Eh. They haven't released anything that interests me in a while, so whatever.

They are only proving that their Wii U strategy is crap. They've made no effort to release anything on the Wii U and then they turn around and say that they made no money from it. This is the textbook definition of circular logic: "We won't support it cuz we make no money" -> "We make no money cuz we don't support it" (rinse and repeat)

EA really screwed over there Nintendo fans, so I dont think there's alot of love for them anymore anyways from us There's been alot of good games from UbiSoft and WB, I rather support them cause they're bringing the games to Wii U.

The Wii U doesn't have as many gamers as the PS3/360 crowd because it's still relatively new. Let's see what percentage of their sales go to the PS4 in it's first year.

There are still millions of Wii U's out there. If they could sell a game to 50% of the crowd, they would absolutely make money. The problem is they keep releasing half-assed ports. Not to mention, they keep putting down the Wii U and it's users. I bought Madden 13 (which sucked) and Need for Speed. If they put something out worth buying, I'll be there...it's not going to happen though.

EA always wants special treatment Nintendo has never been willing to give them it. (Right back to the NES days).

They are like a poison that destroys anything they come into contact with. (Usually by buying small development studios).

Sony are the same as EA. (And Ubisoft)

(Microsoft I dunno people seem to leave but I think they have good working conditions).

You need to actually release games to have folks buy your stuff - legacy editions aren't going to sell

How can they even justify these sales figures? 3% with having released nothing new for the Wii or Wii U during this period is pretty good. If you don't release anything then you can't expect to make sales. I can't collect interest or rent off of my pocket lint, just like EA can't collect money on games they don't bring to market, it's as simple as that. If only 1 game, NFS:MWU made up 3% of their sales then perhaps they should reconsider not developing for Wii U, but it doesn't it is only one of the 3 games that EA released during this period of time, how many did they release for the other consoles during this period? 3% of a full quarter's sales is a large chunk for just one game, but if they are lumping in Fifa 13/14 Legacy then they are idiotic. Those games were less than nothing and they knew they wouldn't sell. By releasing this info, they position themselves to be able to say, "See, the Nintendo Wii U just isn't making us money!" and the blindly following investors say, "Yup, look at the lack of money we got from the NO games that we put out for this system!" Don't list these figures and expect them to mean anything. If EA's shareholders were wise, they would disregard the Nintendo related sales numbers for what they are... garbage and a diversionary tactic from something else. EA shares didn't rise due to these games, but they didn't fall and the lack of effort put in by EA in this fiscal quarter- that they are reporting on- is just ridiculous! This means less than nothing and it seems that by releasing this info we can see that EA is really out to try and crush Nintendo, which is ridiculous. That's like an ant putting on a boot to step on an aardvark. EA is doing their best to try and discredit the Wii U, because they are still upset about Nintendo backing out of multiple deals with them and that is why this information has been released. It helps to deter the possibility of future devs even looking twice at the Wii U. EA wants to own Nintendo so badly and they almost did, but now that they know Nintendo wised up to their plot they just want them to go under so they can buy their properties real cheap... I don't think it will ever happen. Nintendo is a pretty strong company and I think it will take more than the failure of the Wii U to stop them (granted the virtual boy didn't help either, but they came back from that). EA is like the gossiping little girl on the playground trying to get everyone to hate on one of her classmates, it isn't gonna work on me EA! So keep your trite sales figures for games that never got released and I will continue to play games on all systems, but never again will I purchase any games even sniffed on by EA!

@taffy
That's what annoys me most. Battlefront 3 would be perfect with the Gamepad.

They haven't released anything in over half a year. I can't say they're justified in it, but I mean it is a small piece. The issue though is that, if you talk crap like this to the key demographic, then don't release stuff, of course you're helping not create a sales base by allowing nothing to be sold. They're doing it to themselves and to Nintendo being part of the problem.

I cant even find a copy of NFS Most Wanted when I wanted to buy it. I think its all sold out.

$9 Million - thats not to be sniffed at. I'd like to make $9 Million from crap.

WU needs a larger install base. EA also need to try developing one, just one title, perhaps not exclusively WU, but built from the ground up specifically for WU, & taking into consideration all of its feature set. Then, in a flip from the usual, then port it, to the other consoles, if it must be multi(platform). Sales might just surprise EA.

@Worthy You win the rationality prize for best logic.

Let's see if they change their opinion if Wii U sells more.

@tchaten The legacy editions must be profitable at some level otherwise EA wouldn't do it. (They have had the practice for a while one thing they would never do is something like this if it wasn't making them more than it cost them).

@unrandomsam Sure they may make money but if EA wants their Nintendo titles to go gang busters they have to actually put in work to release games that everyone must have! They haven't done that in a long time for any Nintendo console

Right around the time that EA dropped their Wii U support (if you can call it that) was when I dropped my EA support. I will not buy any games by EA (except used) and that goes for Wii U, PS3, 360 and 3DS.

When did they make a Wii U game that wasn't just an old port?

. . . . hmmmm?

Madden and NCAA football are the big hitters along with FIFA. Mass Effect and Need for Speed have come and gone, Release a quality game that's not a port and the you can fairly validateyour numbers . Not to mention how many Xbox360 and PS3 consoles are already in the market. Those numbers and this article are extremely flawed.

Don't care, it's EA, they're garbage and Nintendo is better off without them. Better to struggle alone than to struggle with a s****y company by your side.

EAs statement is frustrating. Most Wanted U was great though they never gave it DLC. Also it came out nearlyfive months after it released on other platforms. FIFA and Madden were ok but cheesy Ports.

Only EA would be stupid enough to make the following logical leap:

1. We don't have faith in Wii U, so we're not going to release games on it.
2. See? Nobody bought the games we didn't release.
3. Obviously we were right.

The problem is that they have barely tried. They can't possibly expect sales for games that were not only ports, of several month old games at that, and one where it was just a reskinned sports game from the year before. It was literally the same game.

That and I believe the ME Trilogy was released for the other systems about the time they ported ME3 to the Wii U. Which would most certainly harm its sales. Try EA. Not just that, but actually put out a new game that isn't an older game that everyone already has. Make full use of what the GamePad can do and make it an important game. Give people a reason to buy it over the other versions. Don't gimp it just because you can. If there is any DLC then the Wii U get it. If there is any special edition...the Wii U gets it. You do not take away any features either.

You can make more money taking risks...

It's no wonder they aren't making money on Nintendo platforms since they are not developing or releasing any games on Wii U / 3DS.

Years old ports and roster updated FIFA's don't count.

@Worthy Very true, i cant understand how they think or lack of it
If EA made a game made for WiiU i'm sure it would sell if the game was any good but sure if they port existing games it wont sell as much.

The minute EA announced that the Wii U was inferior and they were not planning to support the system, I intentionally avoided any of their games Wii U and will continue to do so. Statements like that show that they were not willing to put any effort into development for the system to make a quality game. Many companies have created games on the Wii U with 60 FPS and very rich textures. EA pointed the finger at the system instead of doing any work to make the game good. That's not a company I'm willing to invest any money into.... And the SimCity fiasco did NOT help my opinions of EA on the PC either.

You have to explain to me why I would want to repurchase these 3 games that were released over half a year before the Wii-U debuted, especially considering I already bought them for PC. I'd chalk these lackluster numbers to poor leadership, but that would be redundant considering they've already replaced their moron CEO.

Now we just need the userbases on PlayStation and Xbox to follow suit and we can start seeing this industry get cleaned up. I don't truly hate many studios or actively root for them to go away but EA is beyond despicable.

All of their games on Wii u have things missing. If they were to bring us a complete port of a decent game then they would sell more!

EA will be gutted when they see how well Call of Duty Ghosts sells. They're gonna wish they brought us Battlefield 4.

You need to spend money to make it EA. Giving us inferior ports, half-butted "sequels" and what is essentially trash and call them legitimate games is an insult to our intelligence and a testimony to yours. That 1.3 percent is generous considering the non-effort you've made.

It's pretty simple what EA is saying:

"We are XBOX ONE and PS4 Fan boys"
"Frankly, Nintendo is for little kids"

Does not matter, as Nintendo does not rely on EA to create amazing games.
Nintendo is more successful without a run-down company such as EA