EA says people prefer not to play its games on the Nintendo Switch

The Sims and other games are not likely to come to the handheld console

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 01 August 2019 09:38 BST
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Game enthusiasts and industry personnel walk past the Nintendo Switch exhibit during the Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center
Game enthusiasts and industry personnel walk past the Nintendo Switch exhibit during the Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center

People prefer to play games on other consoles rather than on the Nintendo Switch, the boss of EA has said.

Many classic games – including The Sims – will not be coming to Nintendo's consoles because people simply chose to play them on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One or PC, its CEO Andrew Wilson said.

EA has brought some of its titles onto the Switch, such as Fifa. But that has been criticised for being inferior to the versions on other consoles.

Such titles might be rare in the future, Mr Wilson suggested. Asked at a recent investor meeting about whether The Sims will be coming to the handheld console, he said that the company was reticent to bring new games onto the platform.

"Any time we're evaluating platform conversations, we are really looking at a couple of things," he said.

"One, does the game really fit the profile of that platform in terms of the control or the community ecosystem?

"Two, do we think the community playing on that platform would appreciate the game to go there? Or would they prefer to play it somewhere else? We have a lot of data that would suggest a great many Switch owners also own a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One or a PC and very often choose to play the games that we make on those platforms even though they have a Switch and they enjoy a lot of great content on the Switch."

He didn't deny that The Sims or any other games would be coming to the Switch in future. But he suggested that the company's attentions would be focused elsewhere.

"And so there's always an evaluation process that goes on a case-by-case basis," Mr Wilson said. "And I wouldn't say that The Sims would never go to the Switch, but I think we're doing really, really well attracting Sims players.

"As we said, we did the promotion in the last couple of months and brought in 7 million new Sims players that we expect will engage in that community on a platform that is really tailored to user-generated content, creativity and customization."

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