The Infamous Moment

As is referenced in the tag, many of you will likely remember when John Riccitiello took the stage when Wii U was initially revealed at E3. The EA CEO explained how his company and Nintendo were to engage in an unprecedented partnership, placing heavy emphasis on the online component of the Wii U. Though many theorize that there were plans for Nintendo to integrate EA's Origin service into the console somehow, this clearly never came about and in all fairness, EA ended up jumping ship pretty early with the Wii U.

While we still don't know the specifics of why the deal fell through or what it entailed, we now know why EA has bailed on Wii U development. Rather unsurprisingly, it's due to the fact that the install base is too small. Blake Jorgensen – the CFO of EA – recently spoke at the UBS Global Technology Conference and here were his exact words:

We don't make games anymore for the Wii or the Wii U because the market is not big enough, the PS Vita – the Sony product – we don't make games for that anymore because the market is too small, so it's all about the size of the market.

What do you think? Does this surprise you at all? Do you think EA will end up supporting the NX long term or will it duck out early again? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks to Benson for the tip

[source gamesindustry.biz]