Wii to be 'Major Focus' for EA, says Riccitiello

Clearly no one, not even Nintendo, expected the Wii to become as wildly successful as it's been. There seems to be no slowdown in sight and Nintendo President Satoru Iwata recently said he's looking to the Wii to surpass the installed base of the PS2. Developers and publishers have had a difficult time figuring out exactly what will succeed on the Wii, but with the Wii driving sales in this industry, publishers simply have to make sure they get their products on Nintendo's platform.

Greater support for the Wii is one of the keys to success as EA tries to bounce back from its disappointing holiday quarter, said CEO John Riccitiello. He said during the earnings conference call that EA must "capitalize on the progress we've made on the Wii." 

He continued, "We have a spectacular slate for FY:10, which will be supported by a Wii-focused advertising campaign. We're starting FY:10 strong with Tiger Woods PGA Tour, EA Sports Active, EA Sports Tennis, Boom Blox 2, Harry Potter and My Sims Racing... all in Q1, and it gets better each quarter."

Riccitiello also commented that EA has certainly learned from its past mistakes on the Wii platform, which is why he's so confident that his company can really capitalize on the Wii going forward. "You live, you learn, you adjust, you improve," he said. "We learned what didn't work last year [on Wii], which we're not sequeling..."

He pointed to EA Sports in particular as a big driver for success on the Wii going forward, and he has very high hopes for the aforementioned EA Sports Active and EA Sports Tennis, which will be released initially only on Wii. Riccitiello also noted that the My Sims franchise has been very successful on the Wii, and he said that the three My Sims titles that are being brought together for Wii will be "aggressively marketed." Finally he also mentioned the strong Hasbro business for Wii and the fact that EA will now bring core IP like Dead Space to the platform also.