EA: we develop games for high-end PCs, then port them to consoles

[Scorpus]

Among a sea of horrendous PC ports this year, EA's games stand out for their relative quality on PC. Battlefield 1, for example, delivers outstanding visual quality but runs surprisingly well across a range of PC hardware.

The reason for this is EA develops its games for high-end PCs, then scales the graphics level to meet the hardware requirements of today's consoles. In a sense, EA ports games from PC to console, and that leaves gamers with the best experience on both platforms. EA's Blake Jorgensen had this to say on the matter at the UBS Global Technology Conference:

We build all of our games to the highest possible spec, which is typically a high-powered PC, and as the consoles come in, [which] may not be the highest spec, we may actually dummy down the console product to meet the spec of the console. In a world where the console looks more and more like a PC, that’s good for us.

Jorgensen's last point is important in the modern gaming ecosystem. Both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are built using x86 hardware, which has long been the dominant hardware platform for PCs, and this makes it easier to develop games for consoles and PCs. Judging by EA's successes in game optimization, developing for PC first seems to be the right approach.

EA has also streamlined the game development process by moving most of their key game franchises to the Frostbite engine. Whenever new hardware is released, such as the PlayStation 4 Pro, it then becomes much easier to update this single engine and its development tools to support the new console. This is keeping EA prepared as Sony and Microsoft move to more frequent console hardware upgrades.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/67081-ea-develops-games-high-end-pcs-ports-them.html

 

[Alex Voinica]

Well, to be honest after I have seen your GPU & CPU benchmark for Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 at least, I believe them. They are running fine on a wide range of HW. So, I start to trust EA again. Nice job ! Maybe Dishonored 2 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided can learn a few things from this ( and of course the well-known Arkham Knight fiasco ).

 

[Adhmuz]

Well this is certainly a step in the right direction for the PC gamer, unfortunately it's by EA and I damn near try to avoid anything with the branding as much as possible. It's great that they develop for the PC first but the $165 for the ultimate version is absolutely absurd. Just looking now however and a GMG code is available for as little as $50 for the standard edition, that's more along the lines of what this game should be costing. Not ready to get it however, I'm going to wait for the bugs to be ironed out first, that should only take what, like, 6 months?

 

[RustyTech]

Lol liars! Don't believe a word they say. EA has long been dead to me; and it's not coming back to life.

 

[Alex Voinica]

Lol liars! Don't believe a word they say. EA has long been dead to me; and it's not coming back to life.

Through hard work, trust can be regained.
With Titanfall 2 they seem to have learned a lot.
Players asked for a campaign and they got it - they delivered a short Call of Duty style campaign ( since they are the developers of the WW 2 and Modern Warfare era of CoD ) which is very good.
All post-launch content will be free.
Game very polished and balanced.

 

[Uncle Al]

Sounds a bit too much like marketing to the snob market. Certainly wasn't developed by anyone with any financial knowledge who understands the wider spread of appeal you generate, the greater volume of bucks in your pocket .....

 

[Theinsanegamer]

And none of it matters as long as they push the garbage heap that is origin and limited installations. No thanks.

 

[Puiu]

Well, to be honest after I have seen your GPU & CPU benchmark for Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 at least, I believe them. They are running fine on a wide range of HW. So, I start to trust EA again. Nice job ! Maybe Dishonored 2 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided can learn a few things from this ( and of course the well-known Arkham Knight fiasco ).

**** EA, they did nothing good for the BF series. It's Dice that develops the game, not EA.

 

[Alex Voinica]

**** EA, they did nothing good for the BF series. It's Dice that develops the game, not EA.

Yes, I know Dice are the developers for Battlefield series ( except for that meh Hardline ) but gaming industry is exact like movie industry, you take one great director but you limit its creativity as a studio and you will have a crap ( Fantastic Four, Robocop and so on ). The same here, EA since it's the distributor has a lot of control over lots of things. So, EA is involved.

 

[EClyde]

I don't care who builds the game. EA or BS. I buy few games and even fewer right off the bat. My sweet spot is $20 and by the time the game gets to that price if it gonna be fixed, it fixed.

 

[ATLVM]

I don't care who builds the game. EA or BS. I buy few games and even fewer right off the bat. My sweet spot is $20 and by the time the game gets to that price if it gonna be fixed it fixed.

Yeah I have been burned a few times, I never learn my lesson.. I fall into this trap buying a game only to find out that it's full of bugs and I am beta testing then I get disgusted and waste 50 or 60 bucks because I never play it again..

EA has burned me a few times this year, Mobile game Galaxy of Heroes.. and Madden 17, both games are just crap.. Next year I am not going to even LOOK at an EA game let alone buy one.. because the only developer I trust and still play is blizzard.

 

[alabama man]

Ea on PC died with origin. Most people only get the battlefield games and even then they buy from grey market. Not buying anything for full price if there's no guarantee I can mod the game to work after publisher goes bankrupt. Yearly releases also deter me from their games, not spending 100$+ on game that gets better version every year. When there's good freemium games and competition like overwatch (not getting sequel next year, costs 50$, no dlc to divide playerbase) there's no point in spending 150$ every year on newest battle front/field/hardline. And don't get me started on sports games, stopped playing them actively in the 90's after they went yearly, I buy like one every decade.

Only reason they can boast they are a PC first company is that they bought dice and use their engine that was made for pc. Dice has good coders and without them Ea would be making crappy console to pc ports like everyone else. Shame ea rushes dice and makes them do yearly releases that are cut in parts to sell as dlc.

 

[EClyde]

Yeah I have been burned a few times, I never learn my lesson.. I fall into this trap buying a game only to find out that it's full of bugs and I am beta testing then I get disgusted and waste 50 or 60 bucks because I never play it again..

EA has burned me a few times this year, Mobile game Galaxy of Heroes.. and Madden 17, both games are just crap.. Next year I am not going to even LOOK at an EA game let alone buy one.. because the only developer I trust and still play is blizzard.

Last EA game I bought was Dead Space 3. Good game when I didn't have to solve dumb puzzles. I never finished it but it only cost me $8. I may have bought a NFS after that but again it was <$10 which is great cause it sucked.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

And this is the reason Nintendo is ultimately going to suffer.

The 3rd party developers are not interested in developing for an under-powered system with motion control or controller gimmicks.

The 3rd party developers develop for the high-end PC and then port-down to the consoles which can handle them.

Nintendo is ultimately going to burn out its user base with the 50th Zelda or the 50th Mario bros or the 50th Metroid... or Kong, or Kart...

Though Nintendo's 1st party titles are usually solid, it's the 3rd party that helps sell these systems.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

...and please stop insulting EA.

EA has sports, Battlefield and a bunch of other IP.

They own the market right now.

 

[Puiu]

...and please stop insulting EA.

EA has sports, Battlefield and a bunch of other IP.

They own the market right now.

I'm sorry, but why should we stop insulting EA? It's like saying that we should stop insulting ISIS.

 

[RustyTech]

...and please stop insulting EA.

EA has sports, Battlefield and a bunch of other IP.

They own the market right now.

I wouldn't say that I'm insulting them. I don't like them - they are dead to me.
How is that insulting. So if I don't like something that make me the bad guy?

 

[thelanceleader]

...the garbage heap that is origin...

Why do you live in the past? Origin works absolutely fine. In fact, Origin works better than Steam.

 

[lipe123]

...the garbage heap that is origin...

Why do you live in the past? Origin works absolutely fine. In fact, Origin works better than Steam.

hahaha better than steam.. you so funny.

EA can suck a pineapple! Hated them for so long now it will take ages to change my mind.

 

[Unearthed]

I must admit EA games are quality these days. All of the best games that came out this year are on EA.

BF1, Fifa2017, Titanfall 2, Battlefront.

I can't wait for Mass Effect.

Gears of War 4 on PC runs good too.

The biggest disappointment was Infinite Warfare with its old looking graphics engine and watered down multiplayer.

EA where is Command & Conquer???? Please develop the game and sell it for $60. No Free to Play model this time around.

 

[Puiu]

Why do you live in the past? Origin works absolutely fine. In fact, Origin works better than Steam.

I'm sorry but are you high on something? you can't be serious. you would have to be paid by EA AND high to write something like that

 

[ypsylon]

OK EA... So Bioware which is part of you now, first do everything on consoles and then port stuff to PCs. That's why ME looks lame&weak on non-720p/1080p setups. And then fans do the devs work after release...

Even beta for Andromeda is only for consoles... You got it right here. Can it be even more obvious?!

So yeah we all believe you Dear EA that you are just full of horse manure. LOL

As for Origin client. First ever client was best of all (I had some games back then). Game only required ONE activation and you forgot that Origin-client even existed after that (more or less like fantastic Impulse Driven platform before GamesStop screwed it completely, especially for folks who constitute Rest of The World part of population). Anyway, Version 10 is certainly better than 9 and below, but still is clunky and honestly there is so much functionality which is missing. Looks like EA couldn't give a (Hoover)dam about users. Origin is a pain the the back-side if you running VPN with it (I have to remember to disconnect). Always displays error loading page and you have to delete cache every single time if you want to access some menus in the client. So lame...

Thankfully now my Origin contact is only limited to ME3 and further down the road to ME: Andromeda. I have C&C-RA2/Generals there too, but I dusted off CD/DVDs and that really tells the whole story about Origin.