EA Sports: Wii U Online, Can Do Anything PS3 and 360 Can Do

It’s no secret that Nintendo has been working closely with third-party developers to prefect the Wii U’s online system for launch. Nintendo has been dissatisfied with their online efforts in the past, and, from what we’ve heard so far, they’re really stepping up their game this time around. By working with other gaming companies they hope to deliver exactly what developers want and need from an online system to improve the quality of the online gaming experience.

EA Sports vice president Andrew Wilson recently discussed Wii U online, saying it can do anything that the Playstation and XBox 360 can do.

As every new piece of hardware and every new development library comes through we get a greater understanding of the power. With our early research we had been very happy with the output of the box and we expect that that will only go up moving forward… There are added challenges for us as developers when you think about rendering on two screens and what that might mean, but we’re looking forward to that challenge… It’s still moving, but I think we’ll be able to do anything that we can do on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the Wii U.

[Online is] something that we’re working very closely with Nintendo on… We are highlighting to them what we believe are the most important elements to that infrastructure to deliver a connected experience that we think is the future of gaming… They have demonstrated an openness and willingness to work with us and work with developers that I think will only land us in a positive place… We’re working through the development with them now… We have a series of people who are under very strict NDAs as you can imagine, operating with them, building that system out.

Every time I hear third-party developers talking about the Wii U, especially its potential online capabilities, I get excited. The PS3 and 360 are old by console standards, and I believe that not only will the Wii U’s online system be able to do anything that the PS3 and 360 can do, but it will be able to do with better and it’ll be do more. Never before have third-party has such a large role in shaping a console; they’re basically guaranteeing that the Wii U’s online system will work correctly for them. And since the Wii U is new technology, it should logically be able to execute better.

I could be jumping the gun here, Nintendo could fail miserably, but I have faith in the Wii U. And after the 3DS price cut yesterday, Nintendo will have to do some damage control with the Wii U. We’ll see if I’m right or wrong come next year.

Eurogamer