A Return from an Unprecedented Downfall? Nintendo and EA’s Recent History – Editorial

Almost exactly 14 years before the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, EA’s then-CEO John Riccitiello took the stage at Nintendo’s annual E3 press conference on June 7, 2011 to talk about an unprecedented partnership with Nintendo on their upcoming console, the Wii U. “What Nintendo’s new console delivers speaks directly to the players of EA Sports and EA Games,” Riccitiello told the audience.

He went on to warmly discuss the Wii U, talking of its potential and transformational nature. He spoke of the vibrant future of shooters on the Frostbite engine. The power of an open online functionality. Community extending beyond the console to mobile, social, and the web. This was, according to Riccitiello, a big step in EA’s goal of “changing games to a thing that you buy to a place that you go.”

Less than two years later, Riccitiello stepped down as CEO, leaving behind the tattered remains of a possible partnership with Nintendo as EA wound up being labeled as the Worst Company in America by a Consumerist poll in back-to-back years.

From there, EA never really came back to support Nintendo platforms in full force even with new leadership, but over the course of the Nintendo Switch’s life cycle, they slowly started to more seriously support Nintendo platforms. That’s seemingly all culminating with Madden’s return to Nintendo platforms after more than a decade as Madden NFL 26 comes to Switch 2 on August 14, 2025.

It’s wild to see how EA went from a company that regularly supported Nintendo consoles with a wide array of games to one that released four total games on Wii U and reportedly sent back their dev kits for the system before the console’s November 2012 launch. That same company showed up with a new FIFA game on Switch in 2017, making it seem like they might be back in the world of Nintendo. They then proceeded to mail that game in for years before proving they could actually make a relatively feature-complete soccer game on Switch with EA Sports FC in 2023.

Could the promise of EA Sports FC and Madden on Switch 2 be the start of EA Sports being an expected and regular presence on Nintendo systems again? Maybe, but time will tell because I feel like I’ve been sold this line before.

As of the Wii’s launch in 2006, EA and Nintendo seemed to be in a good place. Madden NFL 07 was a launch title for the new platform, and was shown off at pre-launch events. It made use of motion controls and retained a lot of what made the Madden series beloved. Madden NFL 07 was the first of more than 75 games that EA released on the Wii.

The spread of games was vast. EA Sports was widely represented, with FIFA, Madden, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and more. The Sims franchise showed up, though primarily in the less-good MySims form that eventually made its way to Switch in 2024. Compromised though often ambitious ports of other games routinely appeared, with 2007’s The Godfather port being well received and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 boasting a solid online experience during the Wii’s second holiday. Brand new franchises even emerged, most notably the Steven Spielberg-produced Boom Blox.

EA was all in on the Wii, and while not every single choice was a great one, the allure of the casual success of the system mixed with some strong sales implored the publisher to keep trying. SSX Blur was the 1080 game on Wii we never got. Boom Blox and its sequel Bash Party are both fantastic motion-dependent experiences. Dead Space: Extraction was a legitimately good rail shooter. The hit rate wasn’t altogether high, but EA took enough swings at the plate that a number of their games turned out strong.

They were even at the forefront of Nintendo’s Wii MotionPlus controller add-on. Wii Sports Resort was delayed so EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Grand Slam Tennis were there when the peripheral launched. The Tiger Woods games that made use of MotionPlus were some of the best uses of MotionPlus on the console.

Two years after MotionPlus launched, Riccitiello, who had overseen EA during nearly the entirety of the Wii era, took the stage at Nintendo’s E3 2011 press conference. He uttered the soon-to-be meme-worthy phrase “unprecedented partnership” and then it all fell apart.

In some respects, EA read the tea leaves accurately. The Wii U was a bomb from the outset. The act of essentially shutting down development on the system before it even came out might have seemed preposterous at the time. I know I heard a number of comments from other major publishers lamenting EA’s swift dismissal of the platform, but if the Ubisofts and Activisions of the world could do it all over again, maybe they wouldn’t make the commitment to launch Watch Dogs and Call of Duty: Ghosts on Wii U.

It’s generous to think EA’s foresight was that preternatural, though. The reality likely lies more in the realm of spite. During that E3 2011 presentation, Riccitiello hinted at a deeper online connection on Wii U – something that never truly came to fruition even if Miiverse had its moments. Reports trickled out over time that EA wanted to integrate their Origin service into Nintendo’s online. I’ve been able to corroborate those reports, and while getting firm, direct statements on the idea of Origin on Wii U was challenging, here’s what I was able to piece together: Nintendo looked for someone to help them make online stronger on Wii U. EA saw an opportunity to have a greater control over Nintendo’s online. Initial meetings were positive, hence the E3 2011 moment. At some point, one company tried to demand too much control, whether it was Nintendo being stubborn or EA wanting a bigger piece of store sales, and then one company took their ball and went home. All of this predated the Wii U’s 2012 launch and however it ended, EA as a company was probably pissed off at their experiences with Nintendo and also were close enough to the system to see the glaring flaws in a brighter light. So they bailed.

While Nintendo fans will probably always hate EA, the company’s frank dismissal of the Wii U after launch was a smart move. It was the next step in the path to their modern form, zeroing in on games as a service across online-heavy games like Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefield as well as the microtransaction-heavy Ultimate Team modes in their sports games. Nintendo became an afterthought because their consoles didn’t fit into EA’s strategy. We can hate it, but unfortunately capitalism exists.

So what happened when a new Nintendo console had the potential to be a strong platform for GaaS and microtransactions? Well, EA sent out a flier in FIFA 18 and then withered away again. Their flagship engine didn’t seem to play nice with Switch initially and after the sour experience of the Wii U, why would they immediately hop onto the Switch? Naturally, they were wrong alongside a wealth of other companies that only sheepishly dipped their toe into the Switch waters in 2017.

As the Switch became one of the best all-time-selling consoles ever, things only kind of got better, with the main constant being an annual offering to the FIFA gods of decreasing quality due to EA’s propensity for Legacy Editions. EA didn’t seem to know what to do with Switch, doling out EA Originals and late remastered ports. Beyond FIFA, EA only released a substantial amount of games in a year once. In 2021, Switch had a late port of Apex Legends and Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville as well as two neat EA Originals with Knockout City and Lost in Random.

It’s not like EA’s games were bad. Some of the games tested the upper limits of what the Switch could handle. Tales of Kenzara rules, even if it didn’t run all that well on Switch. And Super Mega Baseball 4 is one of the greatest baseball games ever made, even if it didn’t run all that well on Switch. The 2023 release of EA Sports FC was an incredible port that blew the FIFA Switch games out of the water. Baby steps were made since 2017 that showed that EA might actually take a Nintendo console seriously again.

One gargantuan game remained elusive however, as Madden – a perennial top-selling sports game – remained off of Nintendo platforms for more than a decade. That’s changing though, as Madden as a series is returning to Nintendo for the first time since 2012. It will have been a 13-year gap. For some context, the last time Madden hit a Nintendo platform, the first Avengers movie had just recently come out. We’ve passed by multiple MCU phases since the last time a modern pro football game launched on Nintendo. Since 2012, Tom Brady has won 4 Super Bowls and he’s also been retired for multiple seasons now. The reigning Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts was 14 years old. I could go on, but my word it’s been a long time.

Since the age where EA released dozens of games on Wii, the games industry has changed and shifted substantially. EA will likely never be in a spot where they launch that many games in a generation ever again. But with a new platform, we might be nearing a place where Switch 2 is closer to getting the same EA games as Xbox and PlayStation. Right now, it’s just starting with Madden and EA Sports FC. Maybe the future will bring Skate 4 or Mass Effect. I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic for that to happen, but this is the most optimistic I’ve been about that since the Packers won the Super Bowl in 2011. Hopefully with Madden back on Nintendo again, the Packers can bring another trophy back to Titletown.