While a lot of third party companies appear to be changing their tune regarding the Nintendo Switch – in the face of its recent financial success – Electronic Arts isn’t so quick to jump on the bandwagon.
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Though the company did produce a game for Nintendo’s new machine with its own version of FIFA 18, the company isn’t really to fully devote itself to it. At least, not yet.
Speaking with the Wall Street Journal (shared by reporter Takashi Mochizuki), the publisher noted that it wants to wait at least a full year into the system’s life cycle before it makes any decisions. CFO Blake Jorgensen explained that it’s simply much too soon for the company to look at the success of FIFA 18 as an indicator of the system’s future, and wants to “fully understand what the demand is” before committing any more resources.
That makes sense, in a way. The company went all in with the Wii U when it released in 2012, with games like Mass Effect 3 and FIFA being released for it, only to come back with minimal sales. It completed its run on the Nintendo system with Need For Speed: Most Wanted U, which got very little hoopla with its release.
But that was then, and this is now. Nintendo Switch has been dominating with huge sales numbers, and actually looks to eclipse the Wii U lifetime sales numbers by early next year – hardly something to scoff at. Hopefully, by the time E3 2018 rolls around in June, EA will change its tune and provide some plans on what it intends to do with the system.
As far as what franchises could work best for it, it could be anything, really. A new Battlefield game, which is rumored to make the rounds, may be an essential title, and it never hurts to get more sports games, particularly Madden NFL 19, which is sure to be announced in just a few months. You also can’t go wrong with a port of Star Wars: Battlefront II.
For now, we can at the very least enjoy FIFA, which is a solid soccer game in its own right, despite certain limitations with online play and some missing features.
