Has EA Completely Shunned The Wii U?

While their support has had its highs and lows, Electronic Arts has traditionally been a solid supporter of Nintendo platforms in the past. The last year however has seen a major shift in their attitude towards the Big N with titles either being cancelled or outright ignored for Nintendo's first HD console. Outside of their few Wii U launch titles and Criterion's beautiful Need for Speed in March, EA has dropped off the radar in terms of game releases for Nintendo machines. They have even gone as far as dropping all DLC for any existing games. Here is a small list of what EA has done and not done for the Wii U.

• FIFA Soccer 13 - actually previous years version while PS3/360 got true FIFA 13
• Madden NFL 13 - a gimped version of the PS3/360 release
• Mass Effect 3: Special Edition - no additional DLC
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted U - no additional DLC
• Mass Effect Trilogy - skipped Wii U entirely
• Madden 2014 - cancelled
• FIFA Soccer 14 - unknown? 

And this list doesn't even address the absolute flood of PS3/360 titles that simply skipped the machine entirely despite Nintendo giving the exact type of machine major 3rd party companies were begging for. This includes major releases such as Battlefield, Dead Space and Crysis. What's worse is that the Crysis team had the incredibly impressive CryEngine 3 engine running on the Wii U but couldn't release their game on Nintendo's console because their overlord publisher EA wouldn't allow it.

Sadly, this whole situation seems to boil down to EA being pissed off about Nintendo deciding not to use their hated Origin platform as the primary online service for the Wii U. Back in 2011, EA was apparently trying to build a better online experience with Nintendo for the Wii U and were aggressively pushing their Origin platform as the exclusive service. Nintendo decided to go their own direction with a more open service that has been a bit friendlier to other 3rd party companies such as Activision and UbiSoft. This decision was likely helped by the overwhelming flood of negativity from Gamer's towards Origin and early reports of what EA wanted to do with Nintendo.

Ever since Nintendo decided to go their own direction in regards to online on the Wii U, EA has pulled back their support for the console to almost nothing. EA has even gone as far as cancelling Madden NFL 14 for the Wii U. To put this in perspective for those who could care less about the popular football franchise, this is the first time since 1991 that a Madden title will not be releasing on a Nintendo console. Their actions suggest that EA may completely drop support for Nintendo altogether. While Nintendo fans may justifiably throw up the middle finger at EA, it's interesting to note that EA's recent deal with Disney to develop new Star Wars games means that the Force may NOT be with the Wii U. What are your feelings about EA and this whole situation? Please comment below.