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A major exec from publisher EA has both described Wii as a last-gen platform and hinted that Nintendo is already well on the road to announcing a successor.
"When you look at Nintendo, for a while there, it was all about the Wii being the biggest entertainment platform ever and capturing the mass market, and it faded away," Frank Gibeau, head of the EA Games label, told Industry Gamers.
"Now, they’re coming back with a second act. I think they know that. They’re very self-aware as an organisation and a very powerful brand.
"They understand the dynamics and the fact that HD consoles is a booming part of business right now. Legacy platforms like PS2 and the Wii have dropped off significantly.
"They’re not stupid. They’re going to figure something out. They’re going to come back at it."
With regard to the Wii in the current market, Gibeau also touched upon the traditionally thorny subject of third party success on the machine.
"Wii is a tough market for a third party," he added. "When I look at a development dollar in terms of which teams do I invest in, and what platforms to go at, they’re not very competitive when you look at HD consoles, or free-to-play bets, or things like tablets and handsets.
"It’s something they need to think seriously about with their next-gen – how serious is a third party development community for them on their next platform and their next bet?
"They can get to a certain level of success with their own IPs and their own internal development, but if they don’t have that developer ecosystem where it’s frankly easy to make money on the platform, they’re going to see there are too many opportunities in the world right now to go build games on other platforms in a very successful high quality, highly profitable way."
