EA says the Switch doesn't fit its 'community ecosystem'
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During the Electronic Arts Q1 2020 Earnings Conference Call on the 30th of July, EA CEO & Director Andrew Wilson implied that the reason EA games often don’t get released on the Nintendo Switch is because the EA community simply doesn’t want them.
Jeffrey A. Cohen, an analyst in the Research Division at Stephens Inc., commented that The Sims seemed like it would be a success on the Switch. Cohen then asked Wilson “how [does EA] determine which platforms you’d bring the game or games to?”
Wilson said that, when looking at which platforms to port games to, EA considers two points: “One, does the game really fit the profile of that platform in terms of the control or the community ecosystem?”
“Two, do we think the community playing on that platform would appreciate the game to go there? Or would they prefer to play it somewhere else?”
He then continued by saying that EA ‘has a lot of data’ that strongly suggests that many Switch owners also own other videogame consoles, such as a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, and “very often choose to play the games that [EA makes] on those platforms even though they have a Switch.”
Wilson finished his response with “the promotion in the last couple of months […] brought in 7 million new Sims players [on PC and Mac] that we expect will engage in that community on a platform that is really tailored to user-generated content, creativity and customization.”
The case Wilson seems to be trying to make is that there’s no point in bringing games to the Switch when people can just play them on other platforms. The EA community apparently just prefers PC and Mac.
It’s a weak point, especially when you consider the Switch’s portability, meaning people can play The Sims on the go.
There’s also the fact that many instalments in The Sims were available on previous Nintendo devices, albeit usually as strange spinoffs (looking at you, The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS).
You can read the entire transcript from the conference here. In the meantime, don’t hold your breath about being able to play The Sims 4 on your Switch any time soon.
