EA Wii Q&A
Senior vice president John Schappert talks to us about EA's present and future Wii lineup.
The release of a new console generation is generally a time of scrambling for game developers, as they try and figure out just what is and what isn't possible on the next wave of gaming hardware. Nowhere has this been more explicit than with the launch of the Nintendo Wii, with its unique controls and focus on more casual-minded games. We recently spoke with Electronic Arts' senior vice president John Schappert about the launch of the Wii, the challenges of remodeling well-known EA franchises to the console, and the publisher's near-term Wii plans.
GameSpot: What were your reactions when Nintendo announced the Wii? What did you think when you heard about it, and how did you start working toward forming your well-known games to that mold?
John Schappert: You know, when we first heard about it, we were certainly scratching our heads and saying, "OK, well this is different." And in typical Nintendo fashion, it does things different and you go in expecting one thing or just having some ideas on what it might be, and then it's completely different than what you ever had thought, similar to the same reaction with the [Nintendo DS].
And then we got hands-on with some demos, some of which turned out to be the Wii Sports stuff that made it into there, and then you start realizing the potential of that machine. Brain Age and Nintendogs are perfect examples of showing developers and the world what can be done [on the DS] and what truly maximizes that machine. And I think when you play the Wii, and you play Wii Sports, and you play some of their demos, then you fully grasp how different this machine is and what new opportunities it affords. So I'd say the demos were critical for getting us to understand the potential, and Nintendo has just done a great job with doing something different and catering its device to this unique controller, [and tailoring] its games around that, too.
GS: How far in advance did you know the direction of the console, and how much time did you have to start molding your games toward what the Wii could do?
JS: I don't recall the exact date, but [when] Nintendo started unveiling it to publishers and developers, which was quite some time ago, we were right there with all the other folks early on. So we had ample time to work with this new controller while the silicon was still being worked on. We had the controllers first and foremost. We learned about it, and boom--quickly we got the controllers and got hands-on with them before all the final hardware arrived.
It's one thing to work in parallel while hardware is being developed, and that's never easy and always something that takes up a lot of time as you're continuing to update your system based on new hardware revisions and changes in the silicon. But what was nice was this controller was done and in a near-final state rather early on in the development of this machine, and we were able to really spend a lot of time getting our controls down for it.
GS: It seems like the controller was the key there. How powerful the machine was graphically and the various online things it could do didn't seem to be the primary development goal, were they? Is that fair to characterize it that way?
JS: When I think about the Wii, I certainly think [that] the huge differentiator is that controller, there's no doubt, yes.
GS: When did you decide what titles you wanted at the launch, and how did you decide which ones they'd be?
JS: We're pretty fortunate--we've got 27 titles that sold over a million copies, so we've got many fans' choice titles. So the question is, "OK, which titles work well from a timing standpoint of when the hardware's going to make its introduction, and which ones work well with the controller, and which ones will appeal to that audience?" So that was our filter. We knew we wanted to be there with our Madden product and our Need for Speed [Carbon] product, and we've got several other products in development for Q4, our Q4, which is spring of next year. I think that is our Tiger Woods product, our SSX product, and our Godfather product. So I think we're going to have a great spring lineup, as well.
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