As the popularity of the Nintendo Switch continues to surge an increasing number of publishers have pledged their support for the system, but sports giant Electronic Arts has remained somewhat ambivalent. EA does have a version of FIFA 18 on the way for the system, but they’ve remained mum on the possibilities beyond that.
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Well, in an interview in the latest issue of Edge magazine (thanks to Nintendo Everything for the transcription), EA vice president Patrick Soderlund explained FIFA 18 is the test case, with the publisher’s future support is riding on its success or failure.
“I’ve made people repeatedly, publicly aware that I’m a gigantic Nintendo fanboy. Nintendo was what got me into this industry in the first place. I take my Switch with me everywhere. We will appear on any platform where there are players. We want to be a part of the Switch, and help Nintendo grow that installed base — that’s why you’ll see FIFA, for the first time to be honest, on a portable device.
But we have to look at it from a resource standpoint and, at some point, the numbers become a factor. It’s about supporting the platform, building technology for the platform, testing it out with big things like FIFA 18 – and maybe a couple of others, we’ll see – and if they go well, I see no reason why we shouldn’t have as much of our portfolio on that platform as possible. I hope we get there, that would be my personal ambition.”
This is a bit of a departure from an earlier Soderland statement, where he said EA was “bullish” on the Switch…
“We feel really good about [the Nintendo Switch]. We continue to be bullish on it and are looking at other titles that we might bring to the Switch.”
It should be mentioned than FIFA 18 for the Switch will be different than the Xbox One and PS4 versions, lacking Frostbite-powered graphics and certain modes. Is it really fair to pin all future Switch support on an (arguably) somewhat dumbed-down port?
FIFA 18 hits the Nintendo Switch (and other platforms) on September 29. You can check out WWG’s latest Switch coverage, right here.
[via Nintendo Everything]
