Alex Ward speaks out on Nintendo and EA's mishandling of Need for Speed: Most Wanted

[Ryzza5]

This sounds very similar to the story of Slightly Mad Studios ditching EA after Shift 2 so that they could go it alone.

 

It's no secret that Need for Speed: Most Wanted undersold on the Wii U. Taking to Twitter, Criterion's co-founder has spoken out about Nintendo and EA's apparent mishandling of their baby.

 

After stating on Twitter that his new studio Three Fields "will make games for all platforms where we can self-publish” several Nintendo fans proceeded to challenge Ward about his lack of support for the Wii U.

 

"Totally wrong. I did. Second, I complained when the company didn't even bother to press the discs with our game on," he responded to one user directly on Twitter.

 

"Hey, we worked our arses off. Neither NTDO or EA gave a lalalala about it. A group of us did try...." Ward replied when it was suggested that NFS: Most Wanted on Wii U was a "stealth release."

 

"We just did the coding. Like we had any choice over when it was released? Or the price? Everyone is so quick to blame the developers. Folks worked through New Year to deliver that. We tried to do our best."

 

"We even flew to Nintendo to personally demo in a bid for marketing support. There was none. The game was not even physically released initially in Europe. Members of the team could not even buy their own game. Do you think we were happy about that?"

 

"Idris, Rob, Chris, Paul, Jim did what was asked of them. Everyone else let us down. Stuff like that pissed me off hence I left EA and have started my own company using my savings. So seeing as our families won't eat if we f**k up, we will choose our platforms carefully."

 

 

TeamVVV.com

[TheXRacer]

You know what?

 

Even if this was the ONLY reason why the new Three Fields broke off from Criterion to be formed I commend the guys for this decision. Why?

Because unlike EA's other devs, they didn't take any of Nintendo or EA's crap. If this means the devs get to work in a lower stress environment because they need not worry about publishing issues due to these people then even better.

 

Fact of the matter is, this wasn't the only reason they broke off. So I feel that the move was justified as of now onward.

 

EDIT: I forgot to add, the article states the EA didn't give a duck about publishing their own game. Let that sink in a little.

[Ryzza5]

True but some of them now need to worry about things once looked after by the publisher, such as financing (what happens if there's a delay and they can't afford to pay staff wages, etc), marketing and shipping, testing and Q&A, licensing vehicles, directly dealing with platform vendors, and so on.

 

Not impossible as SMS have so far shown but they've had a couple lucky breaks particularly with a few key people now involved. They've also had other side projects (Test Drive Ferrari, World of Speed, and mobile games by sister company Gamagio) to help keep them afloat.

[Eudemon]

That's the thing I think some people forget, the cost of a game is always increasing until it's actually released (and even then costs increase) due to wages, licensing and marketing. I can sort of understand this debacle though as EA didn't really shy away from saying they didn't see the Wii U as worth bothering with so why would they care about a game for it, then you have Nintendo who is predominantly Japanese and thus you would imagine very proud and very traditional in it's ways so is for sure not to feel at liberty to help out a company who has publicly belittled them.

 

Ry what's mishling? :lol:

[Ryzza5]

Dunno, I haven't typed that anywhere (was all copy/paste if you couldn't tell)

[Eudemon]

It's in the tags sir. ;)

[Ryzza5]

forum glitch?

 

I assume the forum has mishandled the word mishandling

[TDUZoqqer]

I don't really have time to read everything so long untill I understand it, but in my opinion Wii is still a stupid console for car games. Unlike Game Boys back in early 2000's, I never touched a Nintendo anyway (except the pink one from my sister :run: )

 

So all in all, does it mean there won't be any Need for Speed by EA again or what? :oook:

[TheXRacer]

EA still owns the titles of 'Need for Speed' and 'Burnout'; so it'll be no more from the original Criterion team. What's left of that team and the new guys that EA will inevitably put in will use the Criterion name but won't truly be the Criterion we people know and love.

 

That will be Three Fields. In all likelihood though, Three Fields may choose to depart from that genre of games. So anything can happen at this point.

[TDUZoqqer]

Ahh okay I got it thanks :)

[TheXRacer]

Ahh okay I got it thanks :)

No problem; any time.

[mcwaller123]

NFS MW sold really poorly on Wii U but did great numbers on Vita(600K without counting digital nbs)...but Criterion still said that they Both did bad numbers a while ago...what the.. EA being EA

[Ryzza5]

I really can't say anything, but it appears Nintendo haven't changed their behaviour from the OP til now.