Ubisoft was the first big Western publisher to fully commit to Nintendo's Wii console early on, that much is true. But now their arch-rivals from Electronic Arts are aiming to become the #1 third-party publisher on both the Wii and the DS. Or if you will, the #2 publisher after Nintendo - who, they admit, will always be number one (how humble of them). This bold statement was made by EA's chairman and CEO, Larry Probst, during the conference call following the company's financial results announcement from a few days ago:

"On the Nintendo platforms, we think that we can be a very strong number two. Clearly Nintendo will always be number one on the Wii and Nintendo DS, but we think we have a realistic goal of being number two, with a market share goal of 15-20 percent."

During that same conference, EA also confirmed several DS/Wii projects that they hope to serve their aforementioned purpose. One is the DS version of Spore, the one that Will Wright himself acknowledged nearly one year ago (after a job listing revealed it in advance). There were no actual details disclosed about the DS Spore, such as WiFi functionality, and all we know for now is that the handheld version is expected to be released in EA's next fiscal year, ending on March 31, 2008.

Also confirmed was a DS version of The Sims, which according to GameSpot will be ported from the Wii. Both the Wii and DS versions will be titled My Sims, and should also be released during EA's next fiscal year.

Speaking of sims, SimCity for the DS (based on the PC Sim City 3000) will certainly play a big part in EA's strategy for the Nintendo platforms as well. And, of course, there's no doubt that the Wii and DS will continue to receive more of those ubiquitous EA Sports titles. You don't expect them to conquer Nintendo's platforms without these, do you?

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)