EA has generally been a supporter of Nintendo platforms at launch, having hit Wii U with Mass Effect 3, Madden and FIFA when the console first hit store shelves. While the Japanese gaming giant has had its ups and downs over the past few years, EA still sees the studio as an important player in the industry, and it warns against discounting the house that built Mario.
Speaking at the Credit Suisse 2016 Annual Technology Conference in Phoenix, Arizona (via Dual Shockers), EA CCO, Peter Moore, spoke about Nintendo’s newly-announced and upcoming console, Switch, as well as the EA’s long-running relationship with the industry stalwart.
Moore was blunt in his assessment of Nintendo’s recent years, but he made it clear that the catalog of IPs, the strength of the development studios, and the constant innovation coming out of Nintendo made it an incredibly important part of the industry.
“Nintendo has always been and will always be an very important partner in this industry,” Moore said. “They have some of the best first party development studios in the world, and some of the most valuable intellectual properties in the world.”
Now of course, that’s no secret: everyone knows that Nintendo has the best first-party development on the planet. But it’s EA’s willingness to work with Nintendo and its new console that makes it clear just how impressive the new hardware is.
“We have announced publicly that we got a partnership with them on their new platform, the Switch, we haven’t talked in detail on what’s that about. You can imagine, as you heard, that a major game will be distributed on that platform.”
Moore said that the folks at EA were “huge fans” of Nintendo, with the two companies sharing a relationship that goes many decades back.
“They’ve had some difficult times as if recently obviously, but never, ever, ever discount Nintendo in this marketplace, and their ability to leverage their superb game development opportunities. Their intellectual properties, whether it’s Mario, whether it’s Zelda, whether it’s Metroid Prime, we could go on forever about what they can do… obviously Pokémon, we’ve seen more recently.”
Moore’s certainly not wrong about Pokemon. The recent release of Sun and Moon saw the franchise break all sorts of records, while Pokemon Go hysteria earlier in the year had mainstream media clamouring for anything and everything related to the game.
It’ll be interesting to see what game EA plans to bring to Switch. The console hits in March, and rather curiously, so does Mass Effect: Andromeda. Will the Switch be powerful enough and an idea platform for Bioware’s next epic?
