EA Senior Engineer: "The Wii U Is ? "....Etherous Tweets...Fanboys beware

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themadlionsfan
themadlionsfan Members Posts: 9,133 ✭✭✭✭✭
EA Senior Engineer: 'The Wii U Is ? '
Quite blunt.
by Colin Moriarty MAY 17, 2013

Twitter can be an interesting place to voice your opinions, and EA’s Bob Summerwill – a Senior Software Engineer and Architect – has sounded-off there with his thoughts about Nintendo’s struggling Wii U console. His comments, of course, follow EA's admission that it has no Wii U games in development.

Update: We originally had hard links to Summerwill's Tweets here so you can read them in the context of the greater conversation. However, these Tweets have since been deleted, breaking the links. You can still see his Twitter account (sans scrubbed Tweets) here, and screen caps of all of the Tweets in question are below.

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According to Summerwill’s LinkedIn page, he’s worked at Electronic Arts since January of 1999, and has previous experience at Psygnosis, which was later purchased by Sony, turned into Sony Liverpool, and subsequently shut down.

We’ve reached out to EA concerning Summerwill’s comments and will update when we hear back.
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Comments

  • ohhhla
    ohhhla Members Posts: 10,341 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I thought the Wii U was 4x powerful than PS3 and 360.
  • Young Gunner
    Young Gunner Members Posts: 7,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Not like he's lying though. Their handhelds do better than their consoles. When the PS4 & 720 come out, its a wrap for the WiiU
  • VulcanRaven
    VulcanRaven Members Posts: 18,859 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    He ain't saying nothing that we all don't know. I'm still checking for Star Fox and Zelda, but the console and controller are ? .
  • CashmoneyDux
    CashmoneyDux Members Posts: 11,217 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Is this coming from the same company who said they were going to make their games pay to win?

    Oh.
  • focus
    focus Members Posts: 5,361 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2013
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    LOL. Nintendo really made EA mad. Oh well, he already deleted the comments and everything related to EA on his profile so, fake or fired. Either way, Nintendo is unbothered. LOL.

    Whats next?
  • VulcanRaven
    VulcanRaven Members Posts: 18,859 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    LOLOLLOLOLOJajajajajaajiuhgiurhgreugheiogtewho
  • genocidecutter
    genocidecutter Members Posts: 17,825 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Well to be fair nintendo's third party support has been ? since the N64
  • KNiGHTS
    KNiGHTS Members Posts: 4,435 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Well to be fair nintendo's third party support has been ? since the N64

    Basically. Their ? business practices in the SNES days are what allowed Sony to utterly ? them in the N64/Playstation War. We need not even mention the Xbox/PS2 ? that happened to the Gamecube.

    All that said, Nintendo is still the only company operating at a profit on hardware. They're only "losers" because everybody keeps looking at hardware units sold. Look at their bottom line, and you'll understand why they didn't "pull a Sega."

    Nintendo is Oprah "I can put a billion on the table in cash" wealthy out here while Sony and Microsoft are Bill Gates "if I could find enough people to buy all of my stock, I'll have this much money" wealthy.
  • brown321
    brown321 Members Posts: 1,439 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    & nintendo will still make better games than EA even with their weak system. I haven't gave them a dime since Live '96.
    Ol scared of 2k ass ? .
    KNiGHTS wrote: »
    Well to be fair nintendo's third party support has been ? since the N64

    Basically. Their ? business practices in the SNES days are what allowed Sony to utterly ? them in the N64/Playstation War. We need not even mention the Xbox/PS2 ? that happened to the Gamecube.

    All that said, Nintendo is still the only company operating at a profit on hardware. They're only "losers" because everybody keeps looking at hardware units sold. Look at their bottom line, and you'll understand why they didn't "pull a Sega."

    Nintendo is Oprah "I can put a billion on the table in cash" wealthy out here while Sony and Microsoft are Bill Gates "if I could find enough people to buy all of my stock, I'll have this much money" wealthy.

    Why do people include the xbox in the murder of the gamecube? It only outsold the cube by a million or so with 10x the third party support. Ps2 Hiroshima & Nagasaki'd both of them.

  • NothingButTheTruth
    NothingButTheTruth Members Posts: 10,850 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2013
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    People like him are idiots, as are the people cosigning him. What y'all don't understand is the you're not the target market. The Wii is for the part of the market that gets overlooked aka the people who normally wouldn't play video-games.

    Basically, the Wii is a disruptive technology because it appeals to a crowd who could care less about all that graphics, power etc. ratings. So while y'all are getting your nerdy internet debate about graphics and ? , the Wii will continue to find a way to gain market share and will eventually take over.
  • Broddie
    Broddie Members Posts: 11,750 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    People like him are idiots, as are the people cosigning him. What y'all don't understand is the you're not the target market. The Wii is for the part of the market that gets overlooked aka the people who normally wouldn't play video-games.

    Basically, the Wii is a disruptive technology because it appeals to a crowd who could care less about all that graphics, power etc. ratings. So while y'all are getting your nerdy internet debate about graphics and ? , the Wii will continue to find a way to gain market share and will eventually take over.

    He's not talking about the Wii. He's talking about the Wii U which has failed to appeal to anyone outside of ? Nintendo fans thus far. The Wii is dead in terms of support and the fact that you refer to the Wii U as if it was the Wii highlights one of it's core problems in finding it's audience. It's stupid name and how that makes it seem like an add on for the Wii as opposed to a whole new platform altogether.



  • The Lonious Monk
    The Lonious Monk Members Posts: 26,258 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I ain't going to lie. I'd love for Nintendo to go the Sega route if it means having their 1st party games on the PS4.
  • young_reezy
    young_reezy Members Posts: 3,129 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    tell them fools over at EA to get back to workin on that NBA Live ? .

    oh yeah and I aint been playin nintendo since the 64
  • infamous118
    infamous118 Members Posts: 618 ✭✭✭
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    What do these ? be thinking saying ? like that over twitter when you know damn well you're gonna cause a big deal and your company will make you delete it lol. Even if that ? is true just keep it to yourself and off social media
  • ohhhla
    ohhhla Members Posts: 10,341 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    People like him are idiots, as are the people cosigning him. What y'all don't understand is the you're not the target market. The Wii is for the part of the market that gets overlooked aka the people who normally wouldn't play video-games.

    Basically, the Wii is a disruptive technology because it appeals to a crowd who could care less about all that graphics, power etc. ratings. So while y'all are getting your nerdy internet debate about graphics and ? , the Wii will continue to find a way to gain market share and will eventually take over.

    Even in video games, your opinion is skewed?
  • NothingButTheTruth
    NothingButTheTruth Members Posts: 10,850 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2013
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    Broddie wrote: »
    People like him are idiots, as are the people cosigning him. What y'all don't understand is the you're not the target market. The Wii is for the part of the market that gets overlooked aka the people who normally wouldn't play video-games.

    Basically, the Wii is a disruptive technology because it appeals to a crowd who could care less about all that graphics, power etc. ratings. So while y'all are getting your nerdy internet debate about graphics and ? , the Wii will continue to find a way to gain market share and will eventually take over.

    He's not talking about the Wii. He's talking about the Wii U which has failed to appeal to anyone outside of ? Nintendo fans thus far. The Wii is dead in terms of support and the fact that you refer to the Wii U as if it was the Wii highlights one of it's core problems in finding it's audience. It's stupid name and how that makes it seem like an add on for the Wii as opposed to a whole new platform altogether.

    It's the same difference. As long as they stick to their business model, they'll be fine.

    And like I said earlier, the audience are the people who aren't ? gamers, so of course it's going to take longer for fans like that to know or even give a ? about another release.
  • themadlionsfan
    themadlionsfan Members Posts: 9,133 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    People like him are idiots, as are the people cosigning him. What y'all don't understand is the you're not the target market. The Wii is for the part of the market that gets overlooked aka the people who normally wouldn't play video-games.

    Basically, the Wii is a disruptive technology because it appeals to a crowd who could care less about all that graphics, power etc. ratings. So while y'all are getting your nerdy internet debate about graphics and ? , the Wii will continue to find a way to gain market share and will eventually take over.

    take over what exactly?
  • Batman.
    Batman. Members Posts: 1,227 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I don't know anybody that has a Wii U to be honest. Releasing that now was a pointless exercise, should have waited until 720 dropped.
  • Broddie
    Broddie Members Posts: 11,750 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2013
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    WARNING: Since it's a counterpoint post the following is filled with TITANGRAPHS. If you're the "TL,DR" type then keep it moving.
    It's the same difference.

    No. It really isn't.
    As long as they stick to their business model, they'll be fine.

    Except that 7 year old business model doesn't seem to be working anymore. They repeated the same type of stubborness they did with the SNES to N64 transition thinking their current formula is the only winning formula in the long run. Which ends up costing them greatly at the moment.

    In that case it was staying cartridge based which alienated both developers & fans due to complexities of coding and expenses. Expenses meaning cartridges being far more expensive for developers to produce and to code for than CD roms. Setting developers aside and just looking at it from a consumer pricing it was more costly since cartridges were up to $25 more to expensive than CD's which is why you had $45 PSX games VS. $70 N64 ones. It's a big reason why the N64 was the one Ninty home console besides the WIi that I never bought. I wasn't the only one as it lead to a severe marketshare loss for them that they never recovered from till over a decade later.

    They will be fine in the sense that this will NOT be their last home console. Anyone who thinks that is an idiot especially considering that as KNiGHTS pointed out they're the only players in the game who don't take losses on hardware. However unless this platform manages to gain steam at a rate similar to what the 3DS did after also seemingly being DOA they might have to take the L on this one in the long run.

    I myself will give them the benefit of the doubt because it's only been 7 months but if you're objective you can see why the future looks grim in the eyes of so many. Like the Sega Saturn it SORELY lacks any concrete software that will get people to adopt it this early in the game. A first for a new home platform in decades since every home console launch since the Saturn has had at least more than 2 top tier games available during the first 2 quarters of the console's existence.

    Then like the Saturn you also see lots of 3rd party support waning so early in the platform's lifespan. Doesn't help that some of the games that could add a spark and make a purchase seem appealing (Ie: Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101) keep getting held back.
    And like I said earlier, the audience are the people who aren't ? gamers, so of course it's going to take longer for fans like that to know or even give a ? about another release.

    This is such a flawed excuse.

    The audience you speak of never stops purchasing iOS and Android games. So they may not be "? " but they sure do game quite regularly going by record sales numbers of software with massive casual appeal on mobile platforms.

    This is the successor to the console that not only pushed the most hardware units during it's gen but also pushed the most software too mostly because it had so much of that audience in the bag. Which is a big reason why so many 3rd party publishers lined up at the beginning stages of it in the first place. You would expect the successor to something that pushed over 100 million consoles to NOT be behind by over a million units in terms of the manufacturer's sales projections.

    You would think even 1 percent of them may be aware of the Wii U's existence by this point because it's been almost a year since it's launch and Nintendo talks about it all the time to Wii users via online. It's also received mainstream press coverage easily seen by said audience on their iphones and tablets when reading articles online. That 1 percent would be more than enough to cover that 1.5 million units Nintendo's projections were off by assuming the rest were the most ? Nintendo fans. But that 1 percent didn't show up.

    The truth is they've realized buying mobile games online is much cheaper & less laborous than purchasing console games and it fulfills the same niche. To be fair I see this being a major problem for Sony and MS' next consoles too and also expect them to have a slower start than most fanboys may be expecting.

    The one thing that could save Nintendo there is if they make the conditions of their eshop appealing enough to indie devs who could create quality bargain priced exclusive gems only available for this platform. Them dropping the ball there with Wii Ware last gen is why MS and Sony really styled on them on that front with Live and PSN and had a lot of cool $10 or less games that easily appealed to the casuals who did own those consoles.

    The other potential adopters are just confused by it all and this is Nintendo's fault. Naming it the Wii U was their first mistake in that regard. It doesn't distinguish it enough from the Wii to the point that people who weren't interested in the Wii but may have been interested in the Wii U by another name just don't care.

    To many of them it seems like an add on peripheral which isn't helped by their second mistake; the fact that it's aesthetically similar to the Wii (compact design with a dominant white color scheme & gimmick controller). The third mistake being that the logo of the console itself makes the U just look like a weird box design and not an actual letter U. So the identification brand in the eyes of the laymen is just Wii since it's the only part of the logo that boldly stands out which in the end translates to "outdated" and not worth really giving a look to.

    It's quite evident by the fact that Nintendo themselves has to remind people that the Wii U is a brand new platform

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Nintendo-Wii-Wii-U-New-Console-Peripheral-Letter,22402.html

    that they took the completely wrong approach in how to enter this gen. Their stubborness did that to them. Just like it did with the N64, Gamecube and Virtual Boy. What they should've done was capitalized off the goodwill of their regained home console market share last gen which took them over 10 years to regain. By being patiently focused on winning back anyone they alienated last time by making a true competitor against MS & Sony's big boys while also appealing to their current audience.

    Meaning a new hardware brand looked at as a true contender from the ground up and not something that comes across as a spin off they rushed to the market out of the greedy need of having to be "first" to launch this time around.

    Time will tell were the Wii U's future will lead in the end but Nintendo sure as hell does have their work cut out for them right now. ? is nowhere near as sweet as you want to make it seem for them. They can't afford to stay on cruise control. It's leading them nowhere. Eventually they have to start accelerating on their own if they want a chance to stay in this race.
  • The Lonious Monk
    The Lonious Monk Members Posts: 26,258 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I don't know anybody that has a Wii U to be honest. Releasing that now was a pointless exercise, should have waited until 720 dropped.

    Huh, why would you choose to release an inferior system at the same time as its superior competition.

    As bad as the system might be, releasing it before the 720 and PS4 was a smart move.

  • ohhhla
    ohhhla Members Posts: 10,341 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Ain't no way in hell I'm reading all that ? that was just posted.

    This is coming from Genius Mod poster. nh
  • CeLLaR-DooR
    CeLLaR-DooR Members Posts: 18,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Got my brother a Wii U for Christmas. The tablet is far, far, far faaaaaaar too big. There's only one of them. Playin' games on it can be a lil awkward. When I move back out, I'll probably get one. But only for Mario kart, Super Smash Bros, Zelda, Star Fox and Metroid.
  • Karl.
    Karl. Members Posts: 8,015 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    My vita is probably more powerful than that thing.

    I almost copped one too.
  • Bcotton5
    Bcotton5 Members Posts: 51,851 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Ain't no way in hell I'm reading all that ? that was just posted.

    lol cs