EA remains cautious about Switch support but teases future releases

Electronic Arts remains cautious about the market opportunities on Nintendo Switch but has teased plans to release new games for the platform as it continues to grow.

The company doesn’t release many titles for Nintendo’s console – the Switch page on its site lists just five currently available games, including three FIFA ones – and when it does, they’re often stripped of the headline features available on other platforms.

For example, the Legacy Edition of FIFA 20 released on Switch in September 2019 doesn’t include any of the “big new features” included in other versions of the game such as Volta street football.

During EA’s third quarter earnings call on Thursday, an analyst asked whether EA might bring more games to Nintendo’s console following the news that Switch sales have surpassed 52 million units.

“We are very pleased with how well Nintendo has done with Switch,” EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen responded. “I mean, people love the platform, they enjoy it, it’s great.

“We are always looking and discussing with Nintendo what else we can put on the platform and as you can imagine, as the platform grows, our interest in adding content grows for that platform.

“But we’re also conscious of the fact that the top-selling titles by a long shot are all Nintendo software, which is fabulous software, but it helps us balance sort of the realities of how big our markets can be there, but trust that we’re looking at that.

“You will hear some more things in the future about what we’re putting on the platform,” Jorgensen continued, “and we’re very pleased with how it’s grown alongside the growth of both Sony’s and Microsoft‘s platforms.”

Jorgensen also said there are “a lot” of PS4 or Xbox One owners who own a Switch too because of the unique experiences offered on Nintendo’s platform, particularly its first-party software.

Dual console ownership was something EA CEO Andrew Wilson also discussed when explaining the publisher’s lack of support for Switch during an investor call in July 2019.

“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 said.