No Ignite Engine for PC Until Average PC Spec Gets Better

[JaoSming]

Not the news we want to hear from the FIFA front if we want a PC port of Live.

EA previously asserted that most existing PCs didn't have the hardware to run the latest and greatest engine, and used that as a justification for not putting the engine in the PC version

"So could I see the potential for EA Sports Ignite to make it to PC in the future? Yes, I think it's possible, but a couple of things need to happen," said Wilson.
First, the average hardware specifications of PCs — not just PCs in general, but the PCs of those who would buy FIFA on that platform — need to catch up. Secondly, said Wilson, "There needs to be some adjustment in terms of how EA Sports Ignite works to facilitate the open nature of PC architecture, rather than the closed nature of console architecture."

According to Wilson, Ignite in its current form is designed not just around the particular components inside Microsoft's and Sony's next-generation consoles, but also around the specific architecture of those systems — in other words, "how the CPU, GPU and RAM work together in concert in that type of environment." The processors inside the PS4 and Xbox One may resemble x86 PC processors. However, that's not the only consideration for an engine that hasn't been customized for PC but has been built specifically for consoles.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=594561
http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/17/443953 ... ew-e3-2013

This is from the same company that makes Crysis which willingly destroys old PCs. I know its sports and not the same sales as other games that force users to upgrade, but it seems silly to want the install base to upgrade before you come over, rather than give them a reason to upgrade with the same generation ports.

[Uros12]

Idiotic.Just idiotic.I mean,its sport simulation FFS,how can something like that be so hard to port.

[Patr1ck]

So basically, since the APU(GPU), CPU, and RAM all work together in a certain way(integrated), they can't modify the engine to work with CPU, GPU, System Ram and GPU Ram. Riiiiight.

[benji]

This is from the same company that makes Crysis which willingly destroys old PCs.

No, it isn't. Crytek is an independent developer trying to sell their own engine. EA is just the retail distributor through the defunct EA Partners program.

If DICE wasn't sticking to their PC legacy and Battlefield didn't do so well on PC, they'd probably dump PC support for Frostbite. (As they didn't even bother for WiiU.)

The only reason FIFA even comes out on PC as the lone exception of EA Sports titles is because of the foreign userbase. IIRC, years ago EA claimed the 360/PS3 version couldn't run on PC because it was built for multicore. Then when they finally did the port people found that it mostly runs on a single core...

I'm sure that most existing PCs don't have the hardware to run their current FIFA game if we looked at every PC in the world yet they make that port.

The dumb thing about some of these hardware surveys is that even if you have a i7 with two GeForce Titans, you'll still count as someone with Intel HD graphics since they're on every iX processor.

[JaoSming]

The dumb thing about some of these hardware surveys is that even if you have a i7 with two GeForce Titans, you'll still count as someone with Intel HD graphics since they're on every iX processor.

Then why won't Grid 2 let me have shadows for 3D smoke, an Intel HD exclusive graphics feature

[benji]

You can only use integrated or discrete not both. Yet anyway.

[Andrew]

Not the most encouraging news, but we are kind of accustomed to that as far as the PC platform is concerned.

[BrotherJRB]

This is a real quote about the PC version of a game. I haven't seen that in years. bad news but at least this is real news and not heresay. Carry on good sirs.

[RedPhazon8]

The only game PC users get is FIFA, so unless this change will include games too, I don't really care one way or another what these people think.

[Andrew]

Well, it is interesting to note in our continued desire to see a PC version.

[ThePointForward]

Great, my PC is already more powerful than "next-gen" consoles with couple of moths still to go, but no NBA Live for me?

Whoever is calling these shots in EA should finally wake up. If they think I'll buy some inferior piece of hardware because of one game, they think wrong.

[JBulls]

they think you'll buy an inferior piece of hardware because of a lot of games, not just their own.

[Vlad2010]

All this is nonsense, i think. Naturally, if you make a direct port from the consoles, game will have low fps, lags, bugs even on Hi-end PCs. Usually in PC games are low, medium, high, highest settings to can run game on different PC specs. So there is clearly "smells" of marketing, and the reason is clearly not in the PC platform:evil:

[Andrew]

The bottom line is that the PC is more of a niche market when it comes to sports gaming, greatly outperformed by the consoles when it comes to sales, thus they aren't a priority. Unfortunately, that means an uphill battle for those of us who want to see a PC release, because of our history of modding (or preference for the PC as a platform in general).

It's important that NBA Live 14 allows the series to make a strong comeback and get off on the right foot for this generation of consoles. Hopefully, if it regains popularity and is a success, we'll see it ported to the PC in subsequent years...especially given that the new consoles are x86 architecture, which should better facilitate PC ports.