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EA has admitted that Frostbite 2, the publisher’s internally-developed engine, was intended for next-generation consoles.
“I’ll be honest with you — Frostbite 2 was built for the next generation,” EA Games label head Patrick Soderlund told Gamasutra.
“That’s how we started it. We had that in mind and we said, ‘We’re going to have to build something that can scale.’ It doesn’t mean that what you see in Battlefield 3 is the end state. That’s the beginning; that’s where we start and then we go forward.”
The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Battlefield 3 were criticised by some for looking comparatively worse to the PC version – the version EA chose to show off in the build up to the game’s launch.
“We have a tech base that makes me feel really confident in how we’re positioned for what’s going to come in the future,” continued Soderlund.
“That’s the approach that we take, that I take, that I want us to really be at the forefront and push the boundaries of what current hardware technology can perform at, and then where we’re going in the future.”
Frostbite 2 was used in last year’s Battlefield 3 and Need For Speed: The Run. It’s also being used in Danger Close’s upcoming Medal of Honor: Warfighter and PC RTS Command & Conquer Generals 2.
But despite the engine being used in multiple EA games, Soderlund claims that the publisher doesn’t force any of its internal developers to use its tech.
He even says that Danger Close switched to Frostbite 2 from Unreal Engine 3 after “they saw the results of Battlefield”.
“We take the philosophy on not forcing tech upon anyone,” he continued. “It was basically a desire from [Danger Close], when they saw the results of Battlefield, and they saw the results of what that engine could do at the time.
“I’m not saying [Epic has] a bad engine – I’m just saying comparing the two at the time it was like, ‘Okay, we can do more of what we want with the Battlefield/Frostbite engine.’
“And also you have other things: the economy of scale, if you want to call it that. This is boring business stuff. But at some point in time, we want to transfer resources between studios, and if they have the same knowledge on the tech base, it’s going to be a hell of lot easier for us to do that efficiently, and for them to get help or for them to give help. So that’s why we decided to centre on one tech piece, and that was Frostbite; it was the obvious choice.”
