Talking to Venturebeat, Yerli said that a Wii U version had been in the works, but that a breakdown in business communications between publishers EA and Nintendo saw the port killed off.
"We did have Crysis 3 running on the Wii U. We were very close to launching it," he said. "But there was a lack of business support between Nintendo and EA on that."
Yerli told Gamasutra recently that the new wave of consoles will reinvigorate current console generation fatigue in gamers, elevating new concepts in video games that current platforms are limiting.
Rumor I've heard says this has something to do with Origin. EA wanted Origin to override/replace the Nintendo Network for this game? Any truth to this?
It's probably all true. I'm sure that EA wanted to be on Nintendo like Steam is on PS3 but Nintendo said no. Or maybe Nintendo said yes, but for a cut of the profits and EA said no. It's hard to say, and even if we heard the whole story it would still only be half true.
"(...) a lack of support from Nintendo meant the port had to be dropped."
vs.
"But there was a lack of business support between Nintendo and EA on that."
It's not about "The Wii U audience" supporting it, its more about what business talks broke down leading EA to "semi Shun" the Wii U. I still hold the EA Nintendo Origin in the rumor category given that U-play is on Nintendo as a service app and there is no reason Origin can't be there too. However everything this EA developer speaks about this game NOT being on the Wii U, it's becoming clear that rumor is becoming more fact than not. What the developer is not saying, is who's fault it really was.
A third party developer saying "hey let us take over your online capabilities with our Store" is like them saying "let us do anything we want to your device as we see fit." I wouldn't see Microsoft or Sony falling for that deal either, so why expect Nintendo to fall for it.
Microsoft has been giving into EA's online demands since day 1. That's how they got EA on their original system. EA controls all their multiplayer servers on Xbox Live. Why do you think EA is able to shut servers down within a year to force everyone to buy next years version.
Sadly lack off EA support was one of the final nails in the Dreamcast coffin. I've still got my Dreamcast hooked up to play all the classics. So many good games!
And look what happened. Sega made superior sports games as a result and the only way EA was able to take back their crown was to buy out the NFL license.
vs.
"But there was a lack of business support between Nintendo and EA on that."
Sounds like two different things, at least to me.
A third party developer saying "hey let us take over your online capabilities with our Store" is like them saying "let us do anything we want to your device as we see fit." I wouldn't see Microsoft or Sony falling for that deal either, so why expect Nintendo to fall for it.
And look what happened. Sega made superior sports games as a result and the only way EA was able to take back their crown was to buy out the NFL license.