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  • Re: EA Re-evaluates Frostbite Use

    From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Wed Dec 20 15:42:46 2023
    On Wed, 20 Dec 2023 13:19:08 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:


    Frostbite is Electronic Art's proprietary game engine, first developed
    in 2008 by developer DICE. It was used in a number of DICE's
    "Battlefield" games, most prominently in "Battlefield 3", where the
    new version 2.0 received an impressive - and costly! - upgrade.

    Since then, EA has pushed its developers to use its
    expensively-developed in-house technology, and it was pushed into
    games as varied as "Need for Speed", "Plants vs. Zombies: Garden
    Warfare", the 2023 "Dead Space" remake, "Mass Effect: Andromeda",
    "Star Wars: Squadrons", "Madden NFL" "Dragon Age: Inquisition" and
    many more. This was often done over the objections of the game
    developers themselves (most famously with Bioware, who had great
    difficulty adapting the engine to their needs). But the publisher
    insisted, and what the publisher says usually is what happens.

    However, EA has recently announced that, in future, they are taking a
    less strict approach to which engine its developers use.*

    EA seems to have a NIH (not invented here) problem. I think that's why
    they have their own cdn client too.

    EA has always wanted complete and fine control over every aspect of
    product development and publication and micromanages its devs. It's good
    to see that, for whatever reason, Governor Tarkin has loosened his grip.

    First they did so with the EA games stub client and Steam distribution,
    and now by no longer insisting that devs use tools that they don't want.

    Now if only Apple would learn the same lesson.

    But that's another topic entirely.

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rin Stowleigh@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 20 19:25:47 2023
    DICE started showing signs of weakness with Battlfield V, making
    choices that seem as if they were made from fear of a newly hired
    Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer or something.... losing
    confidence from much of their prior fanbase... then they completely
    jumped the shark with BF 2042, putting out a game that just sucks.

    This does not make for great incentive or inspiration for developers
    to line up hoping to use an engine that has produced such "suck
    games".

    So even though the engine itself has nothing to do with recent poor
    decisions by DICE, the cause and effect relationship seems pretty
    obvious to me.

    The Battlefield franchise, if to survive, needs to enter a mega
    ass-kissing phase, where they try to win their fanbase back by making
    great games once again.... or it will just be destined to fade away,
    and the number of people who give a fuck are dwindling by the minute.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)