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EA reveals their current stance regarding Switch support.

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Sqrt

Sqrt

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Although the question was about the Sims 4, I believe it can be applied to all their games:

Jeffrey Cohen

Thanks for the incremental color on The Sims. It feels like that franchise would be one that would do really well on the Nintendo Switch. So I'm curious how you guys determine which platforms you'd bring the game to or games to? And is there any reason why you wouldn't want to bring that one on there?

Andrew Wilson

Any time we're evaluating platform conversations, we are really looking at a couple of things. One, does the game really fit the profile of that platform in terms of the control or the community ecosystem? Two, do we think the community playing on that platform would appreciate the game to go there? Or would they prefer to play it somewhere else?

We have a lot of data that would suggest a great many Switch owners also own a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One or a PC and very often choose to play the games that we make on those platforms even though they have a Switch and they enjoy a lot of great content on the Switch. And so there's always an evaluation process that goes on a case-by-case basis. And I wouldn't say that The Sims would never go to the Switch, but I think we're doing really, really well attracting Sims players. As we said, we did the promotion in the last couple of months and brought in 7 million new Sims players that we expect will engage in that community on a platform that is really tailored to user-generated content, creativity and customization.
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Translation, they would rather have Switch owners play their games on PC/PS4/XB1.

Source:

 
Serene

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I wouldn't say that's entirely inaccurate. It's not applicable for EA's whole library obviously, but I don't think the line of reasoning is that far from the truth.

Which is not to say they shouldn't still support it, but that logic is sound.
 
Raijinto

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Yeah that's very disappointing but not surprising. They don't care clearly. Their loss.
 
OP
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Serene said:
I wouldn't say that's entirely inaccurate. It's not applicable for EA's whole library obviously, but I don't think the line of reasoning is that far from the truth.
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If there's one game that EA could port to Switch is The Sims 4. Low spec game, casual for the Nintendo audience. Etc. The lowest hanging fruit they have, yet here we are.
 

Imitatio

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Yeah, I personally don't miss EA on Switch. But The Sims imo would be such a Nintendo game ... Don't get EA at all here.
 

Spine Crawler

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Serene said:
I wouldn't say that's entirely inaccurate. It's not applicable for EA's whole library obviously, but I don't think the line of reasoning is that far from the truth.

Which is not to say they shouldn't still support it, but that logic is sound.
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Could you elaborate please?

Switch is doing pretty well so far.
 
n00bs7ay3r

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That honestly is probably true for a large percentage of their games but I truly believe that the Sims would do incredibly well on Switch.
 
Nanashrew

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Seeing as EA hardly puts any games on Switch, it only stands to reason that anyone who has a PS4 or Xbox One or PC too are going to play the EA games there because there's no other option. And what is ported to Switch like FIFA are gimped versions so they are going to go to other systems for those.

This is a really stupid answer. And The Sims is one of those games that aligns with the audience of the Switch.
 
Terraforce

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Imitatio said:
Yeah, I personally don't miss EA on Switch. But The Sims imo would be such a Nintendo game ... Don't get EA at all here.
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Literally all I want. I don't care much about EA, but just give me The Sims at least. Casual game that would be great for on the go play. Can't be that hard to port considering The Sims can run on a toaster.
 
Tiny Chihuahueño

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"We have EA access on PS4 and Xbox one and those suckers will eat micro transactions too, there's nothing to gain on switch"
 
Strings

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Spine Crawler said:
Could you elaborate please?

Switch is doing pretty well so far.
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As in, lots of people use their Switch alongside a PC, PS4 or Xbox (weren't we kind of getting that impression during 2017 and 2018 when PS4 and Switch sales weren't negatively impacting each other?), and EA doesn't think they can make the Switch version of their games an attractive enough prospect to convince them to buy them on there instead of on those. I think that's relatively good reasoning on their part, though they can still obviously make a good deal of money on Switch.
 
Noppie

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PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One or a PC and very often choose to play the games that we make on those platforms even though they have a Switch and they enjoy a lot of great content on the Switch.
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How many games are even on Switch with feature parity as the other versions?

EDIT: EA tells me it's FiFA 18/19 (two annual titles, but legacy editions so inferior compared to the alternatives), Fe (a late port?) and Unravel Two (a late port). How can you even tell players rather game elsewhere when your offerings are this slim? Other third parties have shown Switch owners are more than happy to purchase your game if you put in the effort.
 
Serene

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Spine Crawler said:
Could you elaborate please?

Switch is doing pretty well so far.
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It is, but there's a lot to the idea that people who own a Switch own another console/PC at a higher rate than other platforms, which is kind of core to the premise in the OP.

EA would rather focus on selling to those people than Switch-only owners, in which case it does not pay for them to port things.
 
Nemesis_

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I understand what he means but all the games in EA's catalogue currently are not like the ones he's talking about. EA Sports titles are great because they give players a chance to play them on the go with Switch, which is something you just can't do with the other consoles.

The only time I think he *might* be on to something is when looking at a game like The Outer Worlds (which launches later) or Doom Eternal (which will be visually scaled back to some degree). But EA has no games like that......that I can think of anyway.

But yeah, if this is his response in regards to The Sims, I think he's very out of touch. They should've *really* capitalised on getting The Sims on Switch and snatching up some of that Animal Crossing cash before Animal Crossing hits in March.

I'd even argue that ports of Burnout or a NFS game would fit a niche that hasn't (properly) been tapped on the Switch yet for more general audiences.

blegh.
 
@dedmunk

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EA really shot themselves in the foot.

Seriously though, aren't at least some titles showing that Switch sales are greater than sales on other consoles?
 
Gnorman

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So he's basically saying they don't think the sales on Switch would be worth the effort because multiplatform owners would still buy their games elsewhere.
 
Reinhardt Schneider

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To be honest it's kind of astonishing how out of touch they (Well, most 3rd actually, but EA is a special breed of bad) are.

If something has been proven, is that 3rd party games work on Switch. We have reached the point when CDPR just out their biggest rpg on it and we're just waiting for its release.

It's not like I care for current Gen EA, but The Sims and past Gen games would fit like a glove. I mean they are sitting on the mass effect trilogy not doing anything with it ffs
 
Gifmaker

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"Our data suggests that Switch owners choose to play the games we don't make for Switch on other platforms rather than Switch"
 
Gotdatmoney

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If this was really a valid explanation, there would be 0 point in any third party games releasing on the Switch lol.
 
Phoenom

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I'm probably alone on this but I'd love to see another MySims. Those games were far better than they had any right to be.
 
Tagg

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I suspect Switch owners play less multiplayer games because of the portability aspect of the console, which means there's less of an opportunity for EA to make money on the DLC, lootboxes, etc. offered in those titles.
 
batfax

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Well, fine, keep your ball on your side of the playground. But maybe at least let Nintendo take another whack at SimCity since y'all clearly aren't going to any time soon.
 
Chie Satonaka91

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I don't really miss EA. Their output is mostly lame stuff like yearly sports titles, exploitive microtransaction filled premium games, forced online play, etc. I think the last EA game that I really loved was...the Godfather? Godfather 2 was alright. The original game was a masterpiece. Liked it (and the Scarface game) more than GTA. Either way the original Godfather came out like 13/14 years ago.

They can keep ignoring Nintendo, and I can keep ignoring them, on ALL platforms.
 
Gifmaker

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Raijinto said:
The split for Fallen Order between PS4/Xbox One/Switch will be fascinating

/s.
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"0% of sales were on the Switch platform. We did everything we could but people just wouldn't buy it there. We don't understand why it is so hard to sell to Nintendo gamers. There must be something wrong with them."
 
Chie Satonaka91

Chie Satonaka91

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batfax said:
Well, fine, keep your ball on your side of the playground. But maybe at least let Nintendo take another whack at SimCity since y'all clearly aren't going to any time soon.
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Could Nintendo actually make another one? I know EA owns the IP, but Will Wright keeps showing up in stuff and they directly mention the game he's from. It's such a weird ownership thing.

The SNES game was great.
 
Strings

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Reinhardt Schneider said:
To be honest it's kind of astonishing how out of touch they (Well, most 3rd actually, but EA is a special breed of bad) are.

If something has been proven, is that 3rd party games work on Switch. We have reached the point when CDPR just out their biggest rpg on it and we're just waiting for its release.

It's not like I care for current Gen EA, but The Sims and past Gen games would fit like a glove. I mean they are sitting on the mass effect trilogy not doing anything with it ffs
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EA just doesn't do remasters/older ports. Like, not even other consoles get them - they've talked about it before and it's dumb, but they just don't seem interested. They did Burnout Paradise as a kind of test run I assume, but iirc, it didn't sell enough for them to care.

Mass Effect, Dead Space, older Bioware titles, etc would all do well on anything imo.
 
OP
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Serene said:
I wouldn't say that's entirely inaccurate. It's not applicable for EA's whole library obviously, but I don't think the line of reasoning is that far from the truth.

Which is not to say they shouldn't still support it, but that logic is sound.
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The thing is, for that logic to be sound, we only have two possibilities:
  1. EA games have an inane quality that make them adverse for the Switch audience.
  2. All the other third parties that are indeed porting games to the systems are in the wrong.
I personally go for number 3: Their reasoning is weak.
 
Kanhir

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Lonely1 said:
If there's one game that EA could port to Switch is The Sims 4. Low spec game, casual for the Nintendo audience. Etc. The lowest hanging fruit they have, yet here we are.
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It's also got a precedent - Tomodachi Life sold like hotcakes on the 3DS. The Nintendo audience definitely has a market for silly life sims.

Edit: I would say EA's real problem is that they've gone fully down the rabbit hole of microtransactions. On a home console, you can assume it's permanently connected to the internet, so you can have your games aggressively peddling microtransactions every minute. Same for mobile.

But the Switch is portable and doesn't have a persistent internet connection, so it's an inferior system if your entire business model is microtransactions. Your players genuinely can't be the whales you want them to be.

So...yeah, based on that I'm fine with EA passing on the Switch. would still like sims though
 
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Prefty

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I was wondering this myself, Sims is such a perfect fit for Switch i cant believe they have not ported it over already
 
Keyser S

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This answer would be okay if they were literally doing anything else...

Like, say maybe, this again...

220px-Hatsworthcover.png


PLEASE!!
 
Dr. Mario

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The real answer is in the first part.

One, does the game really fit the profile of that platform in terms of the control or the community ecosystem?
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We all know EA is only interested in the business of microtransactions, and Nintendo does not offer a very good ecosystem or community that is conducive to microtransactions gains. EA is boycotting Nintendo until they do create this ecosystem.

However this doesn't really answer the question why EA does not actively seek to broaden the player base for its franchises, and under US law you're sort of obligated to increase revenue for your shareholders, so he comes up with a second hackneyed response that does answer the question:
Two, do we think the community playing on that platform would appreciate the game to go there? Or would they prefer to play it somewhere else?
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