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EA: Making Frostbite 3 Work On Wii U Is Not Impossible, focusing resources on XB1/PS4

EA Games Label Executive Vice President Patrick Söderlund is quite excited about the next generation, and thinks that when the smoke of the battle between PS4 and Xbox One will clear, EA itself and the gamers will emerge as the true victors, as he expressed during a larger interview on the Japanese gaming site 4Gamer when asked about his impression on the rivalry the two next generation consoles:

"Yeah…I wonder if we’ll be the winners in the end (laughs). But, seriously speaking, since the the next generation machines were announced, even those in the media have been telling me things like “It was an unprecedented audience rating”. In terms of this E3, if the fans of our games and the fans of other titles are willing to pay attention, that’s the most important thing.

Vitality is back in the industry. That’s a positive thing, and a situation where everyone can be the winner, including gamers, would be the best outcome. In any case, since we’ll focus on both next-gen consoles we will be the sure winners."
" Electronic Arts released Mass Effect 3 and FIFA 13 for the Wii U, but currently we’re focusing our resources on Xbox One and PS4, so it’s a fact that the priority (of the Wii U) is slightly lower. Howerver making Frostbite 3 work on the Wii U is not impossible. Where there are gamers, we’ll be there as well. This is the true meaning of “omnidirectional”"

http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/07...tbite-3-on-wii-u-lower-priority-but-possible/
 
Well, duh. It's not that it's literally impossible (it can't be if there's a mobile version); it's that their bean counters (correctly, most likely) didn't see the platform as capable of generating enough ROI to justify putting any effort into optimizing the engine.
 

73V3N

Banned
backpedaling-oxdsnx.gif
 
Well, duh. It's not that it's literally impossible (it can't be if there's a mobile version); it's that their bean counters (correctly, most likely) didn't see the platform as capable of generating enough ROI to justify putting any effort into optimizing the engine.

Yep. I'm sure the usual conspiracy theories are about to pop up.
 

jaz013

Banned
Having second thoughts about "next-gen", EA?

What's next? "We never say FIFA 14 was not being developed for the Wii U, we only tried to be 'mysterious' about it"
 

Pociask

Member
Clearly EA just wants to give gamers the best possible experience. It's not like they'd keep producing a PS2 Madden years after next gen launched, and the Madden Engine was producing stunning visuals and gameplay capable only on true next gen systems.

Did I mention omnidirectional? EA is just going where the gamers are. That's why EA is pouring all of its resources into developing games for unreleased consoles that have zero user base, and just has a SLIGHTLY lower priority for the Wii U.
 

AGoodODST

Member
Is there a quote of them saying it was impossible in the first place?

It would be pretty naive to assume it was anything other than cost/effort for little perceived return.
 
Clearly EA just wants to give gamers the best possible experience. It's not like they'd keep producing a PS2 Madden years after next gen launched, and the Madden Engine was producing stunning visuals and gameplay capable only on true next gen systems.

Did I mention omnidirectional? EA is just going where the gamers are. That's why EA is pouring all of its resources into developing games for unreleased consoles that have zero user base, and just has a SLIGHTLY lower priority for the Wii U.

I'm pretty sure even PS2 Madden in the later years outsold what Fifa and Madden did at the Wii U launch. And yes EA is investing more in unreleased consoles just like almost all of the industry is.
 
Not impossible but also not worth the cost.

I don't know, the bean counters are pretty stupid if you go that route, and I see no evidence it's the bean counters. I see it as EA making terrible business decisions.

Releasing Madden 12 on the Wii U as Madden 13.
Releasing FIFA 12 on the Wii U as FIFA 13.
Releasing Mass Effect 3 on the Wii U, but announcing the Mass Effect Trilogy 2 weeks before the Wii U launches and releasing it shortly after.
Releasing Need for Speed: Most Wanted 4 months after the system launched at full price, when the other versions were already cheaper?

I mean, if I were a bean counter, I would want my products on as many products as possible in THIS market. Especially considering the fiasco that is/was the Xbox One pre-launch.

Again, can't never could, but it can fire 1,000 employees and close studios.
 
And so "The Great Backpeddle" begins, or shall I say continues?

B-but a DICE guy said it was impossible a few months ago, no?! Wii U revision incoming!

But but but I believed you guys when you said it was impossibru

Can any of you produce a quote where they actually used the phrase "The Wii U is not capable of running this engine?" Because I've mainly heard statements along the lines of "we're just not going to support it as of yet." The closest I've seen was this thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=554500

Which contained this quote:

Johan Anderson said:
FB3 has never been running on WiiU. We did some tests with not too promising results with FB2 & chose not to go down that path

Notice how he never says that porting it was impossible? He basically just intimates that at the time, it looked like it was going to be more trouble than what it was worth.

You can also read this post as "cut it out with the cute passive aggression and sarcastic derision at statements that were never made."
 
Can any of you produce a quote where they actually used the phrase "The Wii U is not capable of running this engine?" Because I've mainly heard statements along the lines of "we're just not going to support it as of yet." The closest I've seen was this thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=554500

Which contained this quote:



Notice how he never says that porting it was impossible? He basically just intimates that at the time, it looked like it was going to be more trouble than what it was worth.

You can also read this post as "cut it out with the cute passive aggression and facetious condemnations at statements that were never made."

Yeah thanks I didn't remember them saying it was impossible and was wondering where that info apparently came from
 

Busty

Banned
So presumably if they can get it working on the WiiU then they can get it working on the PS3 and 360. But what would be the point of doing such a thing when Frostbite 2 is sufficient for all three?

The very fact the WiiU gets mentioned in the same breath as the PS4 and Xbone is ludicrous to me and it seems to be nothing more pandering to the vocal, but very small, Nintendo fan base and no one else.
 

Darryl

Banned
Is there a quote of them saying it was impossible in the first place?

It would be pretty naive to assume it was anything other than cost/effort for little perceived return.

there was a thread on it, people read those tweets and tried to read between the lines. most of the reasonable people realized from the thread that it didn't mean quite what people were assuming, but still a lot of people had that "wii u is too weak" takeaway who were just browsing through
 

AOC83

Banned
Well, it´s impossible that the WiiU will ever be a successful third party platform and that makes Frostbite 3 kind of impossible too.
 

AGoodODST

Member
there was a thread on it, people read those tweets and tried to read between the lines. most of the reasonable people realized from the thread that it didn't mean quite what people were assuming, but still a lot of people had that "wii u is too weak" takeaway who were just browsing through

Thanks for that, going to have a wee a look.
 
Johan Anderson said:
FB3 has never been funning on WiiU. We did some tests with not too promising results with FB2 & chose not to go down that path


Notice how he never says that porting it was impossible? He basically just intimates that at the time, it looked like it was going to be more trouble than what it was worth.

Well, if FB2 can't even run properly on Wii U, won't it be logically even worse with FB3? Unless I don't understand how engines work…
 

Tobor

Member
So presumably if they can get it working on the WiiU then they can get it working on the PS3 and 360. But what would be the point of doing such a thing when Frostbite 2 is sufficient for all three?

The very fact the WiiU gets mentioned in the same breath as the PS4 and Xbone is ludicrous to me and it seems to be nothing more pandering to the vocal, but very small, Nintendo fan base and no one else.

They already announced Frostbite 3 support for PS3 and 360, IIRC.

Lack of Wii U support was always about poor ROI.
 

Petrae

Member
Technically possible.

Financially irresponsible.

Pretty much this. There's no market share for WiiU. The technology is lacking, compared to the other platforms, leading to more work and resources involved. Combine those with typical sales of EA's games on Nintendo platforms, and it just doesn't make financial sense-- without some backing from Nintendo-- to get Frostbite running.

The key here is that EA finds WiiU development to be a financial risk. Nintendo is unwilling to mitigate that risk. So, no WiiU games from EA until the market share increases or until Nintendo negotiates to make development worthwhile.
 
Well, if FB2 can't even run properly on Wii U, won't it be logically even worse with FB3? Unless I don't understand how engines work…

Well, again, the takeaway shouldn't be "Frostbite 2 literally cannot run on the Wii U" in as much as it should be interpreted as "we evaluated how much effort it would take to get the engine up and running and were not happy with our early findings." It was never a matter of it being an impossibility in as much as it was clear that it would have taken more effort than they wanted to put into it.
 

tkscz

Member
Well, again, the takeaway shouldn't be "Frostbite 2 literally cannot run on the Wii U" in as much as it should be interpreted as "we evaluated how much effort it would take to get the engine up and running and were not happy with our early findings." It was never a matter of it being an impossibility in as much as it was clear that it would have taken more effort than they wanted to put into it.

This has been explained and ignored many times.
 

Pociask

Member
I don't know, the bean counters are pretty stupid if you go that route, and I see no evidence it's the bean counters. I see it as EA making terrible business decisions.

Releasing Madden 12 on the Wii U as Madden 13.
Releasing FIFA 12 on the Wii U as FIFA 13.
Releasing Mass Effect 3 on the Wii U, but announcing the Mass Effect Trilogy 2 weeks before the Wii U launches and releasing it shortly after.
Releasing Need for Speed: Most Wanted 4 months after the system launched at full price, when the other versions were already cheaper?

I mean, if I were a bean counter, I would want my products on as many products as possible in THIS market. Especially considering the fiasco that is/was the Xbox One pre-launch.

Again, can't never could, but it can fire 1,000 employees and close studios.

I'd add in (even though it's not Wii U specific) releasing a botched, terribly feature incomplete version of Madden on the 3DS, seeing the market reject it, and then not making any more Madden games for the 3DS.

Quick edit: Regarding EA's sales on the Wii platform, EA had several titles that performed very well - Tiger Woods, the early Madden's (before they decided to try to sell Madden Babyz), their fitness game, Boom Blox... probably others I'm forgetting. In a shocking news development, EA apparently got decent sales when they treated their Nintendo customers with respect.
 

Darryl

Banned
Well, if FB2 can't even run properly on Wii U, won't it be logically even worse with FB3? Unless I don't understand how engines work…

the games specifically are the things we should be saying can't run on the system, on an individual basis. engines are just engines. people saying a system can't run an engine really doesn't make that much sense nowadays.
 
Of course FB3 is possible. Everyone always knew it was possible.

We don't know why EA has chosen not to support the Wii U, however, because it didn't support it at launch, and didn't support it during launch when it sold 3 million units in a matter of days, causing it to remain launch aligned with PS360 despite nose-diving in sales because no one, including Nintendo, has supported the system with many unique or even truly multiplatform games yet.

Anyone quoting bad sales in the face of EA's actual release-list for Wii U given proper context is putting blinders on. Simple. Cry "conspiracy," but something stinks and there's no evidence EA ever tried or even planned on trying.
 

Akey

Banned
EA for some reason thinks releasing games 6-24 month old games on wii-u should have sold better..... Maybe they should release Madden 2012 on PS4 and see how great it sells.
 
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