Moore: It's Tough To Reach Wii Users With Sports Games

EA Sports president Peter Moore attributes poor sales for Madden and the company's other sports games on the Wii as the result of competing against Wii Sports. "The challenge we face is that that consumer gets Wii Sports right out of the box," he says, according to a report from game weblog MTV Multiplayer. "That’s a sports experience that’s good enough for a lot of people. That is a challenge for us at times." EA Sports's latest Madden release, Madden NFL 09, sold over two million copies on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2 combines in the U.S. in August. During that same period, Madden NFL 09 All-Play, a version specifically tailored for the system's controls and more casual audience, sold a little over 100,000 units. Moore adds that EA Sports's success with migrating "core consumers" to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 has led those those gamers to seek hardcore multiplatform titles on those systems over the Wii. He argues, however, that some multi-console households are buying multiple copies of games, purchasing an Xbox 360 or PS3 game for traditional gamers, and then the Wii version for casual players in the home. The EA Sports president also recently brought up his company's troubles with attracting Wii gamers at a recent investor's conference, admitting, "We didn't get off on the best foot with the Wii with our authentic, simulative products. In our first year, our results were probably best described as miserable. But we've made huge progress." Moore says that the company knows what it hasn't been doing right and has been correcting those deficiencies, providing a "more casual, lighter, [and] more approachable experience." He notes that the division's core games on Wii, Tiger Woods and Madden NFL, are up 20 percent year-on-year and are EA's top-rated games on the system. Even with that trend, he doesn't believe that the company will see attach rates for its Wii sports games match its releases for other consoles. "We’re seeing progress," he says. "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."