In a probable PR nightmare for EA, software developer Bob Summerwill took to Twitter and started slamming the WiiU for it’s viability for 3rd party developers.
Although the tweets seem to have been removed from twitter some of the tweets stated “The WiiU is crap, less powerful than an XBOX360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet. Nintendo are walking dead at this point.” He went on to say, “Nintendo platforms have always been very poor revenue-wise for third parties. Only Mario and Zelda make money.” Where it’s hard to disagree with him about the success of Nintendo’s classic characters on their home consoles, is it fair to say that the WiiU isn’t worth developing for?
He went on to talk about and criticize Nintendo’s hardware philosophy saying, “Sony, MS, Apple, Google all following the same playbook… standard, powerful, hardware, with focus on software and services. Nintendo are still operating like it’s 1990. They should have ‘done a Sega’ and offered Mario/Zelda as PS4/Durango exclusives, Instead they make this awful console, and Wii Street U. Just stop it! Just make great games!” Pleading with Nintendo to stop developing consoles and just make games is a big deal here as well. It’s true that the SEGA Dreamcast never really took anyone’s heart like the Xbox or Playstation 2 but SEGA certainly have kept the company afloat with good games released on many consoles (ironically many of them on Nintendo consoles). He ended his twitter rant saying that Nintendo are no longer the market for casual and family games because mobile and tablet has dominated that market.
There are certainly a lot of strong opinions here and there are some people will agree and disagree with. Will Nintendo take these statements to heart? Probably not as it is only one EA developer on a rampage and Nintendo have shown in the past they like to make new and innovative consoles, I don’t see them stopping any time soon. Although I do see a lot more Maria and Zelda in their future.
What do you think of Summerwill’s tweets? Is he right on the money or well out of order? Let us know in the comments below.