Even though Electronic Arts has yet to announce a single title from their recently announced deal with The Walt Disney Company to produce video games based on the Star Wars brand, we are already seeing pretty clear signs that none of the upcoming software will be ported to Nintendo’s Wii U console.
After EA announced the Star Wars deal earlier this week, DICE technical director Johan Andersson took to Twitter to clear up some confusion over the studio’s history with the Wii U. While responding to a follower Andersson revealed that DICE has never attempted to get the Frostbite 3 game engine running on Nintendo’s new console. According to the Tweet, the studio “did some tests with not too promising results with Frostbite 2” and ultimately decided not to “go down that path.”
The confirmation that Electronic Arts has no intention of trying to get Frostbite 3 running on the Wii U means that Nintendo’s console will not be getting ports of any of the company’s future games that are being built on the engine. This includes anything in the Battlefield, Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises, along with all of EA’s upcoming Star Wars titles — which have all been confirmed to be using the Frostbite 3 engine.
None of Electronic Arts’ Star Wars titles are expected to be released during the publisher’s fiscal 2014 year (April 2013 through March 31, 2014), so in the short term this Wii U snub is unlikely to have much impact on Nintendo’s efforts to turn the console around. Obviously, with Star Wars games set to be released on everything but the Wii U post March 2014, the long term situation for The Big N is looking a little bleaker.
We will keep an eye out for any further details about Electronic Arts’ future Star Wars games and let you know as soon as anything is announced.