Former Criterion Boss Alex Ward Laments Issues With Releasing Need For Speed On Wii U

Criterion co-founder Alex Ward recently parted company with the studio to found his new firm, Three Fields Entertainment. Yesterday, he took to Twitter to partly explain the reasons behind this move, as well as highlighting some of the issues he and his staff faced when porting Need for Speed: Most Wanted to the Wii U.

[Adolph Fitler]

Get the gang back together & make us a successor to Burnout.....But go back to former Paradise days.... Point Of Impact, Revenge & those more linear based tracks are more suited to the series.... This series lost it's identity when it went all open world.

Maybe they could call it WheelSpin, just to put the boot into EA.....and bring back the awesome crash modes, as they were unbelievably good. Screw having licensed vehicles, as the w@nkers that be, at those car manufacturers are too worried smashing up there cars in realistic ways will affect sales of said cars, & brand image..... So, just copy the look of favorite cars, & design better conceptual vehicles for us to go to town on & with.

Burnout series is one of, if not the best racing series of all time IMO, & it needs to live on, even though a name change will have to take effect. Wonder if they could call it BurntOut.

[showtimefolks]

Nintendo this is why you can't get support from 3rd parries. Seriously get someone who can better interact with the publishers and developers

[lilbroRx]

Umm, did you actually read the article? He put as much fault on the publisher, EA, such as that they would not publish the game physically in Europe which is the publishers job, not Nintendos. Nothing he said indicating Nintendo doing anything wrong toward the publisher.

The only big problem he pointed out with Nintendo is with their failure in marketing, which has been a well known problem sense the Wii that they seem to refuse to change.

[Ck1x]

I agree that many will just read the headlines and while Criterion did an excellent job with NFSMW. I think Alex is taking this a little bit on the personal side against Nintendo. But EA screwed the game out of the gate with the high price. For some people expecting Nintendo to throw marketing dollars behind a game that they didn't publish, is being a little foolish. Especially if it wasn't negotiated as an agreement to do such between the two companies.

[hollabox]

Now that Jack Tretton left Sony Nintendo should consider grooming him for Iwata replacement.

[Ck1x]

Nintendo a Japanese company will never appoint a westerner as the head honcho over the entire company. Now him being boss over at Nintendo of America, could be more of a possibility. But Nintendo is more loyal to their employees than that, so I can't see them doing something like this with Reggie still being at NOA.

[clouds5]

Bought the game pretty much day one as a download in Europe. Had alot of fun with it, it was a well done game. It looked beautiful and everything. I hope those guys will release for wii u again because they did a great job.

[Mexxan]

A very frank, open and informative insight into the sheer arrogance of Nintendo. I remember the drought that Most Wanted came some way to addressing - to know that they were so blaze about one of the best developers out there while the Wii U was bombing just reminds me of why I sold the crap I bought .

[CaptainN]

Not Nintendo's job to publish or promote third party games. It was EA's job to do that. You blame Nintendo, who actually did promote it in their Nintendo Direct, but you fail to belittle EA!! Did you see any commercials for this game for Wii U because I sure as hell didnt!!

[Ol_G]

The typical i hate on Nintendo because it's cool troll didn't even read the article just starts bashing

[Mexxan]

Are you for real? If I'd released a console that was selling like crap I'd be doing all I could to promote A / ANY game. I'll say it again arrogance on an unprecedented scale.

[CaptainN]

Does Toyota push Goodyear or Michellin tires on their commercials? No, because its not their job! Toyota makes the car and other companies make the additions. The car needs tires, but its not up to Toyota to market the tire brands!

Nintendo makes consoles, its not their job to market other companies games. The system needs games just as much as the car needs tires...but it doesnt mean its now their job to market other companies stuff.

Thats like saying people didnt buy a lot of Corrolas and Goodyear said to hell with this, our tires dont sell for this model car because Toyota wont do it for us so we wont make them for you anymore.Now Michellin still makes tires and says well we are still going to make tires Toyota, but you better sell them for us! It doesnt work that way in the business world, yet people expect this to happen in the gaming sector!

[lilbroRx]

Pure fanboyism right here. I doubt you even read the article b ecause he faulted EA and Nintendo, and the only problem he pointed out with Nintendo was that they didn't market his game after EA wouldn't, which was EA's job as the publisher and he pointed out that their was no physical release in Europe which was also EA's job.

[Nevers0ft]

That's actually one of his claims that I don't understand... Because I'm sat here, looking at a physical copy of the EU version of NFSMW right now. It might have had a limited run but it was definitely published for EU retail.

[DanielGearSolid]

Love it, sick of the "lazy devs" insult nintendo fans use. Devs don't decide how a game is marketed or sold. They just get their assignments and do their best to complete them... That includes loooong work hrs. Even bug testing and troubleshooting are at the mercy of publishers (they decide how much money goes into that aspect of development)

No matter what job you do, when a person that has no idea how to do it thinks they can do it better... So frustrating

[DC777]

Well I'm guilty of that myself.

That said it's the devs work being shown in the end. Great work but poor sales is one thing but a bad port just makes you look bad. If it's underfunded maybe more devs should speak out even if it's anonomously.

[lilbroRx]

When most Nintendo fansof them say that they are referring to the 3rd party publishers as well who are usually devs. Its a collective. Its a publishers job to manage and promote the game and Nintendo was not this games publisher.

Its sad how even though he pointed out "his" problems with both EA and Nintendo on the issue, you focus on Nitnendo who was a secondary problem. He is mad at Nintendo for not doing the things EA was suppose to after EA didn't, which wasn't Nintendo's job once again.

Secondly, Nintendo actualy "did" promote NFSMWU in a Nintendo direct.

Reading the hatred from Nintendo bashers is just sad. Its like listening to people who watch fox news.

[DanielGearSolid]

Where in my comment did I focus on Nintendo as the problem?

Nintendo fans are who I have the issue with.
You say most Nintendo fans are referring to the publisher yet one of the most common insult is "lazy devs".

Like I said DEVELOPERS put in too much work to be getting most of the blame. And as usual nintendo fans NEVER admit Nintendo itself is partially at fault

[lilbroRx]

I did not say most Nintendo fans are talking about the publisher. I said the dev "AND" the publishers who are usually also devs(EA is also a dev in this case). Its generally directed collectively at everyone who is involved in the games production.

Don't reword what I say into something that you find more convenient to argue against.

[DanielGearSolid]

You're absolutely right I read that incorrectly. You said dev and publisher. But it's a moot point because I clearly have a problem with the ppl that say "lazy devs" specifically.

Now about rewording what ppl say, you never answered my question....

Where in my original comment did I focus on Nintendo as the problem? You completely ignored that question... Likely because you realized I never did... So you're in effect doing exactly what you're telling me not to...

What's more you're speaking for others as if you can read minds and you kbow they mean collectively pubs and devs when they say "lazy devs"

So not only did you put words in my mouth, you put thoughts/motives in a whole group of ppls words, who quite frankly youre in no position to speak for

[vengeance]

I could be wrong about this but isnt it EA's job to advertise their games?

[MattS]

The manufacturer is meant to support the third parties, though. So, you know, they don't go elsewhere.

[donwel]

But the game was already on every platform under the sun. I myself have it on PS3 and Vita.

[lilbroRx]

Yep, this post is an example of blind disdain for Nintendo. Find everyway to fault Nitnendo even when it doesn't make sense.

Apparently its Nintendo's job to market every third party game on their system which not even Sony and Microsoft do, even though the game isn't exclusive to them nor do they have any contract.

The funny thing is that Nintendo kind of does, tough, with their Nintendo directs...

[DC777]

Well this explains a lot. Both EA and Nintendo dropped the ball here although it seems more like EA took its ball and went home. Somebody has got to realize that 3rd party games on Nintendo must be advertised and must be released at the same time. Months later people aren't interested.

They did a good job as its one of the best 3rd party games on the system (graphics wise). Unfortunately for them I only paid 15 bucks for it.

Whatever the deal is here its obviously the heart of Nintendo 3rd party problems. Hell they had one of the biggest games of the past year, Ghosts, and NEVER advertised it one bit. Yet the pushed the hell out of Donkey Kong (great game) that looks like it will be lucky to sell one million units. But don't advertise that you have the second biggest selling game of the past year. I mean...is there seriously a Nintendo of America? Whoever is running it sure has blinders on.

[Ol_G]

Why should they promote a game that doesn't have a digital release no dlc no clan mode no crossplatform play in fact it was even inferior compared to black ops 2 and the publisher didn't even promote it why does everyone keep saying Nintendo needed to advertise more if their publishers don't care

It doesn't matter what people want to think or keep saying but it is ALWAYS the job of the publisher to try and sell their game NOT the hardware manufacturer they already have to promote their hardware and in Nintendo's case they also have their own software to worry about

[DC777]

Well I get all that...but why didn't they go back to Activision and say "wtf?". If it's one of the big releases of the year you can't just let it go.