Back when Nintendo was preparing to launch the Wii U, they promised proper third party support for the console that would be on par with what was offered on competing consoles- an initiative that was symbolized most infamously by the ‘unprecedented partnership’ that Nintendo had with EA, which would one day lead to games like Battlefield running on Nintendo’s console.
That never happened- EA did support the Wii U at launch, with some admittedly half hearted efforts, and then all future support for the console famously collapsed afterwards, when those games failed to perform as expected, perhaps. EA’s public refusal to support the Wii U led to an exodus of sorts of third parties, leaving the Wii U software situation dire.
It looks like Nintendo understands the importance of third party software with the Wii U- it also looks like they understand the symbolic importance of having EA on board if they want that third party software, because Nintendo Life is reporting that, according to insider reports, Nintendo is ready to bend over backwards to get EA on board with the upcoming Nintendo NX- and that the two companies will be having a series of meetings in March to discuss and negotiate terms to assure just that.
EA seems to be most concerned about the audience on Nintendo platforms- or the complete lack of it, anyway. Even when Nintendo consoles sell and EA puts its games on them, the demographics for their games and for the audiences buying Nintendo consoles don’t line up. EA wants to know how Nintendo plans to circumvent these issues, and has a full list of demands that it reportedly believes will alleviate the situation. These include demanding that Nintendo target their marketing beyond just their traditional family demographic, ensuring that the console has appeal as a multimedia machine to teenage and adult buyers, building up a ‘sports’ audience, and bundling EA’s games with the console as and when necessary.
A lot of these may sound outrageous or even arrogant to the layperson- but I do understand where EA are coming from. Frankly, any third party is probably wary of touching a Nintendo console right now- the userbase on those platforms is toxic for third party software sales. If Nintendo wants these third parties on board, it needs to demonstrate exactly how it plans to actually create an audience that they will be able to sell their games to this time around.
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