Rumor: Electronic Arts Pushing For Wii U Origin Exclusivity

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Here’s an interesting little gem from the rumor mill: apparently Nintendo wants to use digital distribution services in the development of the Wii U’s online capabilities, and Electronic Arts is pushing for Origin to be exclusively used by the new console.

Why would Electronic Arts want Origin to be the only service that the Wii U uses? Well, EA has been helping Nintendo develop the online capabilities of the Wii U, and getting Origin to be the platform exclusively used by the console means that Electronic Arts would be getting a lot of new Origin users. EA will take every Origin user they can get too, especially if they consider Steam to be a major competitor in the realm of digital distribution (which it is).

The rumor comes from Wii U Go, which talked to an Electronic Arts intern that happens to be friends with one of EA’s network engineers. In other words, take this rumor with a grain of salt – a massive grain of salt. I wouldn’t be too surprised if this turned out to be true, however – Nintendo knows that it needs helps attracting online gamers with the Wii U, and Electronic Arts likely sees this need as an opportunity to pimp Origin even more.

Wii U Go’s informant also told the site that Electronic Arts isn’t the only platform holder hoping to get support for their service on the Wii U. According to the source, Valve is also keen on getting support for Steam on the Wii U, and you can imagine that such news would see Electronic Arts doing everything it can get Origin as the service used exclusively on the console.

I’m not really sure what to say. At the same time, this rumor seems both very out of the blue and yet still plausible. The Wii U is still quite a ways off, so we won’t know what’s really going on for quite some time, but in the mean time head down to the comments section to tell us what you think – is there any validity to this rumor, or does it seem a little too strange to be true?