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EA has confirmed that the Wii U version of FIFA 13 will not include all of the features seen in the Xbox 360 and PS3 releases.
Chief amongst the omitted features is the popular online mode FIFA Ultimate Team.
"We don’t have Ultimate Team, purely and simply because Nintendo’s online is in its infancy," FIFA 13 Wii U producer Matt Prior told Eurogamer. "It’s building. FUT took five years to appear on 360 and PS3. They’re very complex features.
It’s potentially something we could do further down the line. But in terms of initially getting the foundation set, that wouldn’t have been technically feasible, because it is such a complex mode."
Also missing are recent gameplay additions such as the excellent First Touch and FIFA Street skill systems, as well as the modernisation of the Player Impact Engine.It should be noted, though, that the twin-screen nature of Wii U means that SKU will be default boast features not seen in any other versions.
"Some of the later improvements on FIFA 13 we weren’t able to get into the game," Prior added. "So we’ve got version one. They’ve got version two."
The news, although disappointing, should maybe not be that much of a surprise.
EA’s initial FIFA releases on new hardware are often based on older builds of the game. Indeed, even this year’s FIFA 13 on Vita – the series’ second release on the console – still lags behind its home console cousins in raw functionality terms.
Then there’s the fact that EA’s approach to football on Nintendo machines has often seemed at odds with its high-budget work on PS3 and Xbox. The Wii version of FIFA 13, for instance, has been the subject of some brutal abuse.
