It isn't only EA bashing the Wii U it is everybody. It isn't just the power of the console that is making people doubt it. It is the adoption rate and the attachment rate. There really is no reason to develop for a console that nobody owns. Also plenty of Devs got bitten by the previous wii which sold lots of consoles but had a very small attachment rate ( a large percentage of people who bought it only ever played wii sports and never bought another game).

Our perception of markets is absolutely ludicrous. Wii U has sold 3.5 million units, that sounds pretty good to me. To say that nobody owns a Wii U is far from the truth. The Wii outsold the other platforms, but it's 'casual' / Wii Sports mentality damaged it's brand. That might be why we are seeing weak sales. But mob mentality in consumers today is kinda out of control. People find it difficult to assess a product on it's own merits without over-accounting for the opinions of others. I agree that the perception of Wii software sales was probably weak (but I couldn't be bothered trying to confirm that), I'll take your word for it Buster. But Wii U is definitely a computer that can take on more serious titles and with the controller is open to more traditional games.

How many million units does it take for us to say .. ok, that's a viable platform ? I think for the Wii U, titles will make it or break it, but it is totally in a good position, with brand value and current numbers to move strongly into the future, but that will depend upon the titles coming out over the next year or two.

But to the point of the OP, if EA and Nintendo had a strategy conflict, I would tend to think that it would definitely lead to some words in the public arena. I don't like Origin that much, EA should talk with Nintendo about making a new combined distribution platform. Get some Nintendo know how behind it. Because I only use origin to play one or two games, for me it has absolutely no value beyond that. I think EA's ego has led them to believe that Origin is more valuable than it really is. Sure we have to have it installed to play EA games, but that's not how a distribution platform should work. EA have it wrong.

EA is an US company, insofar their behaviour is not very unusual. Comparative and derogative advertizing against a non-US company such as Nintendo is pretty "normal". Of course it only works one way.

That said, I don't see anything special or innovative in Wii U which might possibly lead me into buying one. It isn't even necessary to "bash" Nintendo. Everybody can make games with stunning graphics and sound these days. Everybody does "online" these days. But to be awesome, you really need more than that.

Though of course I generally have no incentive to buy consoles at all (the Atari 2600 was the last one I owned), but... one of the things that really matter are the controllers, in my opinion. Controllers in the good old days, whether they be proportional or not, buttons or sticks, they all sucked.

Now, the original Wii controller is just fucking cool. Bowling and golfing by swinging the controller around? Awesome.

Kinect is even cooler - you are the controller. If it didn't come with that XBox live crap, I'd buy one of these at once.

Now, in comparison, a touchscreen... are you kidding me?

Wii U has sold 3.5 million units, that sounds pretty good to me

It sounds like a good number to me too. However from a developers point of view it is insignificant. Tomb raider sold 3.5 million copies and then devs got laid off because it wasn't enough units. If 3.5 million units is what it takes to turn a profit then that excludes the wii U from having any exclusive releases. A lot of developers got bitten this console generation and a lot of others lost their jobs. Some have abandoned console development completly to go back to PC or mobile titles and some have washed their hands complely and left the games industry. EA has made people redundant nearly every month so far this year. They are only going to take a gamble on a platform that has millions of users.

Also I've found EA's business practice very questionable (FIFA 13 being the same as FIFA 12 except name change).

Are you talking about the Wii version? I worked on 12 for the Wii, and I can tell you the sales were below lackluster. I'm actually surprised they released a 13 at all.

Wii U has sold 3.5 million units, that sounds pretty good to me.

There's also the "attach rate". e.g. generally a PS3 owner will buy more games than an Xbox owner, and the average Wii U owner won't buy any individual boxed games whatsoever.

Ok, I can see how that is an important factor. The figures I worked out agree with what you are saying.

Device games / console

---------------------------------------

Wii .......... 8.7

PS3 ........ 8.5

XBox 360. 4.7

Wii U ....... 3.7

Can the Wii U's attach rate be attributed to age of the console, after all, it's only been out for a few months. I would think the attach rate will grow over time, but I don't know.

Have there been any discussions on the similarities between PS4 and PC, and obviously Xbox 720 which I imagine will be essentially a Windows 8 or Windows RT machine. Nintendo have not embraced the PC model (as far as I know, and TBH I know very little about console development, so please take what I say from a non-experts perspective), but for developers I would say that the common underpinnings of PS4 - XBox720 - PC make that triumvirate a very attractive group of friends when building non-exclusive titles. That could put Nintendo on the more difficult side of the fence for developers as time goes on. But a few good titles on Wii U and it would seriously be OK.