Exclusive: EA Origin to be a key element of Nintendo’s online strategy?
We received a tip from an EA intern with some very interesting information pertaining to the Wii U’s online system. Our source, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims that her information comes from a network engineer whom she is friends with. As with all news from anonymous sources, it’s difficult to determine its authenticity. But what we received sounds plausible and even explains Peter Moore’s relentless excitement for the Wii U.
It’s no secret that EA are helping Nintendo develop the Wii U’s online service. It will allegedly offer voice- and video-chatting support, leaderboards, and detailed friend lists that tell you who’s online and what they’re playing. The service aims to offer greater flexibility to publishers than Xbox Live, and EA . From our source:
Many publishers are happy with Xbox Live’s features, but they aren’t happy with how strict Microsoft’s guidelines are. Nintendo went with an open flexible approach with online because when Nintendo asked developers/publishers what they wanted in an online service, that was the number one thing they asked for.
But interestingly, EA are supposedly in talks with Nintendo to try and make Origin, their digital games distribution platform, a key element of Nintendo’s online strategy, too. EA would have the chance to bring Origin to the console space and win many new users while Nintendo see it “as an opportunity to rebuild relationships with Western gamers because they feel that only a massive western company such as EA nderstands what is needed to make an online service attractive to western gamers.”
According to our source, EA isn’t the only company looking into bringing its digital distribution platform to the Wii U – Valve, too, are interested in getting Steam onto it. But EA are “aggressively persuading Nintendo to go Origin-exclusive with Wii U’s online so they can gain a competitive advantage over Steam.”
Our informant doesn’t know how Origin on the Wii U will differ from Origin on the PC, if at all. But if these talks about making it a fundamental part of the Wii U are really happening, it’s no surprise that Peter Moore is one of the most enthused Wii U developers out there.
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Now all that’s left is this…. Nintendo, PLEASE DON’T CHARGE US TO PLAY ONLINE!!! That is all :3
i doubt nintendo will charge us, they love to make their consoles affordable so they will make up for the expensive high powered machine with a free online service 😀
I hope it’s true:D
I hope that Steam will beat out Origin, that’s the platform that everybody loves, Valve knows what we love, and they have sales often.
Origin blows.
Eh, not happy about this. I hope they go with Steam rather than Origin, Valve know how to make an online service MUCH better than EA does.
Microsoft’s strict guideline is whats made xbox360 LIVE Service what it is today ( Its the Number 1 online service ) also prevents HACKERS………..now Nintendo wants to go the PSN way by being a open Service……….well i hope they are ready and willing to accept Hacks like the Second class service like PSN lol 🙂
Are you stupid? The only reason why PSN got hacked is because the PS3 got hacked and they used the same encryption crap to protect their data. Sony and lots of other companies seen this and won’t do the same mistake as Sony. Its not because PSN is free…
Steam? On Wii U? O_O That’d be epic!!! The Wii U would get backwards compatibility with tons of great games like Portal 2, MW3 (the Wii port is obviously graphically inferior), Witcher 2 (which the Wii u will be able to run, I hope), and the list goes on. Though if it gets Origin too, it’ll get Battlefield, that one Star Wars MMO, and all the games EA pulled from Steam when they released Origin. …Remind again why Origin even exists?
Err, no. It won’t play Steam games that already exist. It just will link the two services, and provide future benefits like cross platform play. But no it willl not make it play Portal 2
I heard that Wiiu will have ALL high definition games, and I mean, 720p-1080p hd
Sounds awesome. But a rumour is a rumour, after all.
Please let Steam on the Wii U as well. Not only does it have more games/better network infrastructure, but there’s cross-platform play between PS3/PC via Steam, and we could add the WiiU/PS4 to that mix as well. I’m OK with Origin, but seeing the reasons I highlighted above, Steam would be a much better alternative.
This. If Nintendo doesn’t go with Steam then I’m afraid that they’ve made the wrong decision.
Cool! I imagine that it would sort of work like Roku does, where you have all the different “big” services, but you can also just play online if you have a game that isn’t made by EA. In fact, that’s where Steam would probably come in, and it would be AWESOME if Steam were on the U.
I’ve seen multiple people complaining about problems regarding Origin when playing Battlefield 3. Is that right? I have never used this stuff so I really don’t know what their issues are.
But I’d love to have Steam on there… it’s just steaming hot.
Origin and Steam you have to play there games online, because it’s online DRM on the PC. Wonder how it will be on the Wii U? If this true.
Reason why I don’t like Origin and Steam is because of online DRM. I usually use Good Old Games instead.
Err, no. You can switch to OFFLINE MODE. Didn’t you know that? You don’t need to have internet conection to play the games you have ALREADY downloaded to your library.
Got that?
Am I the only one that doesn’t like the idea of Steam on Wii U? I’d rather give EA a chance with Origin, this would give them a chance to offer something very attractive and competitive (against steam)..not to mention that EA games are awesome..in my opinion EA games + EA service > EA games + Steam(?!?)
Hell no…
You’re a insane minority. Internally developed EA games aren’t that great, it’s the stuff they publish from Bioware/DICE that people like. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone praising EA+Origin…ever.
But I guess you’ll never find EA games on Steam…
The main 3rd party games come from EA, publishing them or not, I can only think that Origin service + EA games would be wonderful. The fact is they’re already working on it for Nintendo, it won’t be “just” Origin in my opinion, it will be something better or something else, since it’s just a rumor by now.
I understand that you’re referring to steam as a digital distribution service, but keep in mind that EA will bring a good share of the 3rd party support that Nintendo is trying to get, I just can’t see Nintendo abandoning one of their main publishers, and if they do this..well, it would be a pain for a lot of gamers D:
Likewise though, going with Origin exclusively would be a very bad decision for Nintendo. They need all the third party support they can get, and a company like Valve who is growing bigger and bigger in the games industry will definitely be pleased to see Steam come to the Wii U. I can see them allowing this sort of thing for multiple publishers, so for example when you play EA games you will have access to Origin, and when you play Valve games you will have access to Steam. That would be the best way to do it IMO.
EA’s games are WHAT!!!!!!! next you will be telling us ubisoft is D’shit EA are a joke…seriously
wow you received this tip exclusively. Good job, this is really big news!
This bumps up my interest for the wiiu by 15-30 percent. Thanks for the news, and hopefully nintendo can have as good of a online service or better as the PSN for free. IMO free, decent, online service is the way to go. Sure it sucks that it may get hacked, but I have campaign, storymode, singleplayer to make up for the time that it(may) be down.
this sounds ausom
I haven’t had a single problem with Origin yet. Honestly, if you read instructions and do things correctly the first time, you won’t need to deal with customer support (who I found quite helpful actually).
Whoever nintendo chooses they had better go the distance. If it is EA/origin then I wanna see dims games with full DLC compatability. And definately titles like SSX 2012. With HD and the tablet controller’s functions and features we should no longer be left out the loop for certain titles. I do expect some cool capabilities between 3ds and the wii u
If they are considering Origin and Steam for the Wii U, then they need to get OnLive on their as well.
Why would they have a competitor’s software on the console? Also, once again the games have to be allowed to work on the Wii U. The publishers say OnLive can use their game, but they won’t nessecarily want the Wii U to run them through OnLive since that would harm software sales. All this ever will be is a nice friends list and a few other bells and whistles.
LOL i am a newbie to this stuff, what is steam origin? Are they online service engines?
i hope that whoever nintendo dont go with, doesnt get pissed and decide not to support wii u strongly
I called it in 2006. Mostly.
Oh my god. Steam for Wii U? Purchase sealed. Origin? Yeah, no.
Oh great, I look forward to having my access to “The Legend of Mario Prime 37-and-a-half, Still Not a New F-Zero Game 2: The Sequel” revoked after I accidentally sneeze in EA’s direction. Origin is cancer of the highest order.
well, if i had any notion of buying the Wii-U, it’d be gone after them using Origin.
even though it would still be light years ahead of anything Nintendo could muster up?
People aren’t realizing one thing, the 3DS has universal friend code. If it does, for the sake of 3DS/Wii U connectivity, the Wii U will sport one universal friend code as well
As long as the Origin service provides a quart of potatoe salad with each subscription to the service, it should do well.
if its origin then expect a nintendoized version of it fully automated for pick up and play use if EA feel its not a success they could simply allow nintendo to use it and refine it as there own and things like cloud gaming of nintendo games could happen think outside the box people this is nintendo after all…
This makes sense why EA has been such a huge supporter of the Wii U and it’s online capabilities. Because EA has a stake in it with Origin. I think it would be a good idea to keep Origin as the name. Wii U Origin Online Service (WUOOS). OK that abbreviation isn’t good lol but seriously, if they do this right hard core gamers will want Wii U. And Nintendo can finally one up Xbox Live.
Of course thats a pipe dream. Nothing every happens AS GOOD as it can. So we’ll see.
I think it’s something we’d have to see in action before really understanding, but if it comes to a choice between Origin & Steam… no contest.
That sucks so hard 😡 I just didn’t buy BF3 because of the origin shit and now it seems every Wii U buyer is forced to use it…
I hope they actually let us have more than one marketplace in Wii U. Then we could get Origin, Steam & Nintendo Shop all at same time. Origin and Steam could be used like Zune for Xbox360/PS3.
When there is more than one marketplaces with more different content it means more game sale days for us and happier users for Nintendo. 🙂
Steam on Wii U? Dear god. If that happens, then I dunno if i’ll buy the system.
I’m not much of a pc gamer and I don’t know too much about Origin or Steam, but It seems like Steam is obviously the better choice. but Since EA has deeper pockets… oh boy. Let’s just hope that whatever the outcome is, Nintendo has a SUPERB online service for Wii U, because it really needs it IMO.
Let it be known that Nintendo would never FORCE players to use an online service and on disc games would be 100% playable without Origin.
The Wii U is a Nintendo console, remember?
STEAMMMMMMMMMMMM
this would be the smartest move for Nintendo. Steam houses the largest chunk of gamers that are generally impartial to Nintendo software let alone hardware. The steam integration would allow Nintendo to assimilate this huge segment of gamers while exposing Steam to the Massive installed user base of Nintendo Wii. Origin on the other hand has proven unreliable and get nothing but unfavorable press, they are a late adaptor to the steam model and will not offer the core segment of gamers that Steam represents.
The unfortunate side to all of this is that Electronic arts is a multibillion dollar company and Valve, while a better developer, doesn’t have Peter Moore who’s been awful chummy with FilsAime. Also Nintendo might fear the fallout of choosing Steam over Origin, because EA publishes many more titles than any other publisher out there…
That’s what it’s really coming down to. Are they trying to earn the respect of the gamer(steam) or the developer(origin)?
I would much rather have steam I have over 100+ games on steam and never even heard of origin before
I will never buy Nintendo again, if they add this viruses in the console.. They totally destroyed pc gaming and this will not be tolerated.. I hope its the joke of the day..
NO! NOT ORIGIN! STEAM!!! SSSTTTEEEEAAAAMMMM!!!!!