Nintendo forces us to think differently – EA

The relationship between Nintendo and EA has been rocky for the last few years, but with the Switch it looks like EA might – maybe – be back on board.

Speaking in a new interview with IGN, EA executive vice president Patrick Söderlund has told the site about the companies decision to support Nintendo at launch;

We’ve been with Nintendo for a very long time. I’m a Nintendo fanboy since I grew up. Nintendo is the reason I got into gaming.

What I like about Nintendo is that they come to the table with a slightly different approach. They’ve done that in the past to great success, and sometimes not so much, but I think unless you’re willing to think about something unconventional, it’s going to be hard to break ground.

Nintendo forces us to think differently; [Switch] challenges conventions. As game makers, makes us think about the platform in a different way.

So why just FIFA then, surely it would be better for more than just one title to come over?

It’s our biggest brand. It’s the brand that spans across the most markets. It’s the brand that spans the biggest age demographic. It’s a mass market proposition. It’s a game a lot of people want to play. This is our way of showing we’re going to be there. We’re supporting the platform. We are not announcing anything [else] yet, but you can expect us to be there once the platform launches and takes off.

We have the benefit of being a platform agnostic company. We will be at whatever platform the consumers are. New hardware is always a positive for our industry. It allows us to push forward.

Advertisement

Söderlund then when to talk about how Breath of the Wild is one is most anticipated games on the year;

It’s on the top of my list for 2017 as one of the games I’m looking forward to the most. I’ve played every single Zelda since the first one. And having completed all of them, even if I forget about my job, just as a gamer, from what I’ve seen and what I’ve played, I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

EA have said some nice things about Nintendo in the past and we all know how that turned out. Could the Switch be the console to ‘switch’ it all around?

Bring on September.