High-end PCs Are the Top Priority for EA !

It's still fairly common for PC to get average ports of console-targeted blockbuster titles, but according to Electronic Arts' CFO, it may be the other way around for his publisher's studios. Speaking at the UBS Global Technology Conference, Blake Jorgensen said the company aims for the highest spec PC, and then scales back accordingly for consoles.

The question arose during a discussion about the company's flexibility when it comes to console cycles. Moving all of its games to the Frostbite Engine has meant that dramatic upgrades only need to happen for one engine, rather than "25", according to Jorgensen. In any case, he believes Microsoft and Sony are moving towards more iterative hardware upgrades anyway, and that backwards compatibility between these iterations will stop games dying at retail, thus making investing in games less risky.

In other words, Jorgensen foresees that profit margins won't need to be scaled according to new console updates because the publisher won't need to invest in new technology so often: they're already building their games to exploit the best of what hardware is available.

"You won’t see much margin upgrade at all," he said. "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."

EA is on our team peasants, aka, EA is da best :P

Back to the point, EA has done a great job in terms of optimizing their games lately, BF1 is the GFX king and it runs like a dream on PC, the same goes for Titanfall 2

Here's hoping other devs follow the path as the results are good for all platforms.

Thoughts?

EA is on nobody's side but I can't deny it , they published Crysis, I'm greaful for that

I remember EA saying they were interested in PC gaming and then made drivel like Simcity and that canceled F2P C&C game nobody wanted.

Still, I can't deny Titanfall 2, Fifa 17 and Battlefield are incredibly well crafted PC games.

Frostbite is good shit.

Yeah, they still have a long way to go, but lately they've been great with awesome ports and giving away free DLCs, On the House, and that EA access service ....however, they still have their own shitty practices

Too bad good games arent their top priority

Don't think they will with Scorpio on the horizon

I see an alliance between EA and MS

Yeah, a few years ago I couldn't care less about EA games and this year I've already bought 5, lol.

I also like how Origin is improving. I'm never gonna buy anything at their insane prices, but on sale stuff is nice.

I bought Mirror's Edge Catalyst not too long ago for 15 euro, that wasn't a bad deal.

But I'd like it if they brought back one of the dozens of PC franchise they are sitting on. A Simcity or C&C that wasn't designed around a DRM or F2P system. A proper game.

come to think of it EA has a good resume , The Sims 2&3 , StarWars TOR , Crysis and ... sadly they kinda ruined it for me with their shitty DRM and DlC whoring

@mjorh:

I was gonna say something but OMG THAT IS A CUTE, LITTLE BABY!!! ?

With the way BF1 runs....I believe them

Yeah, you can tell they prioritize the PC version with how incredible it looks and runs on PC.

Even my friends with 680s can run the game just fine in 1080p.

I think their Access program is a really amazing deal.

PS4 gamers miss out.

Well as a Origin Member, they are right and I never have any beefs with EA, (Well maybe with Mass Effect 3 but that's another story) and I'm glad they know high-end PC are there top priority. Looking at the latest Mass Effect: Andromeda trailer, I can just imagine the PC settings are gonna be insane!!!

Well where the hell is Madden then?

Can you elaborate how that Access program exactly works? i think you pay like 5$ and you can play the specified games for like 1 month ...or was it about the duration of gameplay? as i remember it was like 10hours with BF1 or sth

Yeah he's so cute and hilarious :D

They've been putting out some good stuff lately tho

How come? i don't see that kinda connection between the two

BF1, Titanfall 2, Mirror, and the other two?

Yeah that'd be good

Thanks to the almighty Frostbite ! man it's like the best engine ever !

Wouldn't be too surprised about it coming to PC next year when they'll most likely move it to Frostbite

Eh, I just moved to Cities: Skylines. It's way more fun than any Simcity ever was.

EA Canada SVP and general manager Matt Bilbey says that “PC is literally based on demand. There's still the high demand for FIFA on the PC globally because of the global appetite for the game. I think that's less so with Madden.” It’s difficult to tell sales figures for the PC version of FIFA, given it’s based on Origin rather than Steam, but it’s clearly one of the most popular games in the world.

Cam Weber, who occupies a similar position to Bilbey at EA Tiburon, primarily responsible for Madden, agrees. “Yeah, I think with Madden in particular, it used to be a good business, and then it declined and the economics just didn't make sense anymore. Then the compounding problem is that I guess in the last four or five years...as we get away from PC development, it becomes more and more difficult to get back to it.”

There is hope though. Weber says that theyre “open to it; it's just a matter of when's the right time and when does the opportunity make sense” while Bilbey thinks that “I think if [things change] and an opportunity presents itself, I think we would definitely leverage the opportunity.”

Part of the reason for this is the Frostbite engine and, presumably, the move to more PC-like consoles that make porting easier. "I think part of the vision you've heard about aligning on Frostbite as a company makes that a lot easier going forward," says Bilbey. “Frostbite is a very core PC engine that has the ability to move across consoles, up and down.”

@mjorh: I'm an Origin member, yes you pay only $5 a month to play 30 games in the vault, you also get 10% discounts if you buy there games like, I can pre-order Mass Effect: Andromeda and get 10% off then I would buy the console version for it and that goes for the deluxe or super deluxe if I wanted to pre-order and buy. Right now, I'm playing Crysis 3 in the vault. I think they have a free trail if you want to try it out.

It makes sense to target high-end PCs now, especially with these new high-end consoles.

Making them game the best it can be then scaling down it how all games should be made.

What high end consoles? The Xbox Scorpio will literally have less power than my GPU from the middle of last year, next year. It'll be at least two generations behind high end when it launches.

Sorry to rain on your parade mate but it's just a simple fact.

This!

At that point, you may as well just get a PC. Part of the appeal of consoles is not having to worry about stuff like that.

Why would I do that? I should've known better than to poke the hornet's nest anyway.

Que ME:A smile.

There is no reason for them to worry. They are pretty much guaranteed the shit version of a game. They don't have to worry about quality because they never get it. LOL

I'm going to edit an ini into and outi

frostbite is a great engine, no doubt about that. but EA games are designed for consoles first and foremost. if they were designed for high end pcs battlefield one wouldnt look so similar on pc and ps4.

Crysis is also on GoG now. I think they have the 64-bit version.

Good to hear.

Mass Effect 1-3 were just console ports with no PC extras which sucked.

Had to resort to mods to get it looking decent.

Did you mean to say.

"Had to resort to mods to get it looking even more amazing than consoles".

Yes and no.

What i mean is the PC versions were just direct console ports with no added graphical options like AA, ambient occlusion, high res textures, etc.

Mods added those things. Without mods, the only thing PC had over consoles was higher resolution and slightly better textures.

Mods made the game look a lot better, but not as good as it could had the developer actually spent time improving it for PC

Meanwhile in another thread... "I can't get COD to run properly on my pc. Steam won't give me a refund." There's literally hundreds of thousands of posts across the internet about why a game won't work on someone's pc. Some people prefer consistency when it comes to games.

No they didn't..... Crytek did.... EA just published it.

that's true but they put their money in a PC game that high-end systems had so much trouble to run it at a proper frame rate , you hardly find a publisher who would do such a thing these days

thats the best way to do it now.

companies, like EA, that invested in higher end PC development last gen are now the developers that are consistently putting out many of the best looking games on the new consoles. compare them to bethesda (well the elder scrolls side of bethesda), who focused on the X360 spec until it retired and the difference is night and day (ID have made a cracking engine though...again they were working on high end PCs long before this gen started though).

its easier to aim high and cut than it is to aim low and build. i mean even with the PRO and scorpio, enabling better performance and/or graphical settings is going to be relatively trivial for EA games. the development effort should be pretty small (implementing some of the more unique features of the Pro will take a bit of work but, as far as i know, it wont be unique to the PRO for too long so its not a waste). itll be more a testing effort. making sure the correct settings are used to get the best performace/visuals out of the new consoles. the tech and assets are mostly already there.

i said it years ago: smart developers continually focus on using the latest tech and the best place to test that is the PC. it wont pay off immediately but it will pay off in the med to long term. tech that does appear on the PC will eventually come to consoles (and sometimes the reverse is also true).

Of course they are. This is what they can do with BF1.

@mjorh: Fifa 17 and Need For Speed as well :)

Titanfall 2 is indeed best EA publish game since Crysis 1. a miracle? EA game with no season pass??

Yeah Titanfall 2s campaign is pretty amazing.

I'm glad we are getting many solid singleplayer FPS again.

Instead of those throwaway singleplayer experiences with a multiplayer that screams 'I wanna be like COD but worse'

Still, PC gamers getting bad console ports all the time...

Majority of the multiplatform games are developed on PC, then they are ported to Consoles, so how are they bad console ports to be exact?

@silversix_ said:

lmao !

Glad you're a fan of the series :D

Which mods exactly? i haven't tried them

Gotta grab FIFA 17, didn't like 15 and 16 but i played the demo of 17 and it was great, reminding me of the legendary Fifa 14

That's a shame that they are focusing on a very small percentage of gamers.

It's easier to scale down than beef up from a low starting point