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Free Wii game good enough for a lot of people, says EA Sports boss.

Wii Sports screenshot

Wii Sports, the game that comes bundled with Nintendo's Wii for free, makes it a "challenge" to sell other sports titles on the console, EA Sports boss Peter Moore has said.

Speaking in an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Moore said that EA probably won't see the attach rates for sports games on the Wii that it sees on the 360 and PS3 "in this cycle".

He said: "The challenge we face is that that consumer gets 'Wii Sports' right out of the box and that's a sports experience that's good enough for a lot of people. That is a challenge for us at times."

Despite this, Moore said EA consumers were buying the 'next-gen' version of the game and the Wii version, catering for hardcore and casuals in the same household.

"We are seeing multiple copy purchases in the home," he said. "As you well know, I was the proponent of the Wii60 (the term associated with consumers buying both consoles) in the early days. I think there's going to be a very strong multi-console ownership in homes. And I think that's bearing out. We are starting to see, anecdotally, two copies of 'Madden' — one for the 360 or PS3 — and another copy for the younger kids or even for the wife or girlfriend on the Wii."

He added: "We're going to keep pounding away. We know what we were doing wrong. 'Tiger' is EA's number one selling game on the Wii period. Period!

"The bottom line is we knew what we weren't doing right. We've corrected that. We're seeing progress. Is it easy? No. Will we ever see attach rates for authentic sports games, for licensed sports games, on the Wii to the same we see on 360 or PS3? Probably not in this cycle. Are we going to see continued growth of both? Absolutely."

What do you think Wii owners? Is Wii Sports enough for you? Does it prevent you from buying other sports titles on the platform? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Tony's Avatar
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Tony

It would help if they brought out sports that don't come with Wii Sports, like NHL hockey. As it is I was forced to buy the inferior NHL 2k9; EA is really missing the boat on this one!
Posted 17:25 on 16 December 2008
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EAsportssuck

SO Moore is saying EA can't make a better sports game than Wii Sports....figures. Sooner or later they are gonna have to make games designed for Wii and not a port with added "Wii features". Stop being lazy and use some of that money you have and put it into your games and stop buying other game developers, EA.
Posted 08:18 on 26 November 2008
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bencrosaby

Maybe if the quality of the games had been better (perhaps bringing something fresh to the genre's) then maybe sales would be higher.

:/
Posted 16:19 on 25 November 2008
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pblive

I can see he has a point. Love it or hate it, Wii Sports is a well crafted piece of software which caters for the basics of sports games.

That said, prior to the recent versions, the EA Sports games on Wii haven't really been all that good, which might account for some lower sales.
Posted 14:37 on 25 November 2008