EA's 180 Maneuver is a Laughable Mess

. . . EA may have been at Microsoft's "XBOX ONE Reveal"; but it seems like the game publishing giant is still stuck on 360. How so? Because they keep spinning in circles... but not with Microsoft - Nintendo.

This has been an interesting two years - watching EA interact with Nintendo.

At Nintendo's E3 2011 Press Conference - Iwata invited the now former-CEO of EA up on stage and he rambled on and on about how great it would be seeing EA's hit titles run on Nintendo's new system. An *unprecedented partnership* - is what he defined it as.

Yet even so - It didn't take long for things to go from smiles and cooperation - to hate and bitterness... at least on EA's part. Rumor has it that Nintendo approached EA about helping them develop the Wii U's online infrastructure. Somewhere down the line, the deal was cut and that left EA scarred and seeking revenge. How was revenge dealt?

Well - 4 games from that *unprecedented partnership* was delivered; all of which were late ports. Out of those four ports:

~ 2 (Fifa and Madden) - were half-baked; they were missing functionality that was available in the other versions.

~ 1 (Mass Effect 3) - was a complete rip~off. How so? Well; it costed $60. Why is that a rip-off? Because EA released the 'Mass Effect Trilogy' for the same price on the other systems. Add insult to injury; the DLC packs released after 'Mass Effect 3 U' have yet to appear on the Nintendo eShop.

~ 1 (Need for Speed: Most Wanted U) - had actual effort put into this. This wasn't just the best EA-published port; this is THE best third-party port that the Wii U has seen yet. Not to mention one of the best examples of a port done right, ever. Too bad it was released over 6 months after the other versions...

EA's revenge didn't stop there. Crytek - an EA-owned company ~ had their latest game ~ Crysis 3 ~ running on the system. It was practically finished. All that was left was the game discs and cases to be produced and shipped out to retailers. What happened? EA shut the project down. To top that off - from since the year began we've been getting annoucements of "this EA game not coming to Wii U and that EA game not coming to Wii U." All leading up to the grand annoucement that EA "has NO games in development for Wii U." Then, Bob Summerwill - EA's Senior Engineer - had a nice little twitter rant; completely dissing Nintendo and the Wii U. Oh, and let's not forget that "Frostbite 2 had unsatisfactory results, so we didn't go forward with trying Frostbite 3 on the system."

Now; here we are. EA has apparently backtracked from their "no games in development for the Wii U" statement, and has now revealed that they apparently ARE indeed developing for the console, even though it's still not as much as what we'll be seeing from them on the XBOX ONE and PS4. This is an interesting turn of events. Between all the announcements of announcing that games WON'T be coming to the system, coupled with the "unsatisfactory results of Frostbite 2", to Summerwill's Twitter Nintendo Attack - it seemed like EA had practically sucker-punched Nintendo in the gut after the Origin fallout and sent a bullet of spit to their and Wii U owners' faces at every given chance.

Now, suddenly, they're back in action? Why? Did the sour response from gamers and media alike over the XBOX ONE Reveal send enough chills down EA's current CEO's spine to make the *horrifying decision* to green light Wii U development? Or maybe Disney pressured them to cut their little hissy-fit out and bring Star Wars game over to the system. Maybe it's just damage control. Or it could be that EA is now out of their little *phase*.

At the end of the day - This up and down and all around nonsense is irritating. For such a large, and rather old company - EA surely has no sense of wisdom or even common sense. It's like the leaders drink a bottle of alcohol, get drunk, and then make the important decisions. It's no surprise that they got the astonishing award of "Worst Company in America" for the second year straight. What an accurate title. This last two years between EA and Nintendo has been like watching a bad teen sitcom, with a young couple in a malfunctioning relationship.

Who knows what will happen at E3. Will Nintendo make some surprise annoucements that there will indeed be some EA games coming to the Wii U? Or will that wait for a little while longer? Only time will tell. Until then - just leaves me wondering:

A.) What games they ARE developing for the system.
B.) If the development teams are the same skill level as the PS4 and ONE teams.
C.) Which engine they're using
D.) How they intend to explain why they've been having this *on again-off again* performance with Nintendo, after they made that big declaration.
E.) What they're going to do with Summerwill.

Your move EA... show us what you're REALLY made of...