Is it time for EA game developers to move on from the Frostbite engine?

Last week, Kotaku'due south Jason Schreier published an investigative commodity that revealed many of the bug backside Anthem, BioWare'southward latest title. The problems range from poor management to hesitant decision making and everything between, and most of them were surprising to see from such a highly-regarded game studio. All the same, at that place was one culprit that didn't surprise players at all — the Frostbite engine, notorious for both its incredible visual potential, and its extreme difficulty to work with, which oft results in barriers that are as numerous as they are frustrating for developers to work through.

Canticle is perhaps the perfect embodiment of Frostbite'due south pros and cons, combining breathtaking visuals and maddening operation issues into one bittersweet bundle. And every bit it joins the ranks of several other titles that had rocky development due (at least in part) to the Frostbite engine, one has to wonder if the engine'due south elevation potential is worth the demoralizing climb developers have to embrace to attain it.

Why DICE shouldn't motility on from Frostbite

Die'southward Star Wars Battlefront Two was, for the most part, stable from the commencement.

While it'due south clear that the Frostbite engine is incredibly problematic for most studios, 1 company that makes it work wonderfully is Die — and this is because they made it. Back in 2008, Dice made the Frostbite engine for its Battlefield showtime-person shooter series, and e'er since information technology has served them extremely well, throughout all of its iterations. The Battleground and Battlefront franchises, past and big, have nifty technical functioning.

Because of this, there's little reason to propose that DICE stop using its own engine. So far, it hasn't failed them.

Why other developers should motion on from Frostbite

Mass Effect: Andromeda was built on Frostbite, and it suffered because of it.

Frostbite has been a thorn in BioWare's side for years.

While DICE may have few issues with Frostbite, information technology has become articulate that it presents a mount of problems for near other developers that use it. BioWare's various teams accept practically been at war with Frostbite from 2022's Dragon Historic period: Inquisition onward. That game, Mass Issue: Andromeda, and Anthem all experienced major setbacks during development because of its difficulties. Frostbite was likewise a major factor in the collapse of Visceral Games' at present-cancelled Star Wars title. While currently unconfirmed, many suspect that the swap to Frostbite for recent FIFA titles has caused their development teams to struggle as well, as they take numerous technical bug.

In add-on to the anonymous sources from the above Kotaku articles, Manveer Heir, who previously worked on Andromeda, personally wrote on Twitter that "...all the criticisms of Frostbite, the shittiest engine I've ever worked with are 100% on point and seriously my life is then much better on Unreal at present where things, you lot know, work and content creators are, you know, empowered." He then went on to add together that "Some days I wake up from nightmares of Frostbite taking 2 days to do something I can practice in 2 hours in a competent engine. Cute looking engine that is dogshit to use."

Anthem's visuals are gorgeous, but Frostbite but isn't designed to be used for games like information technology.

Based on all of the prove nosotros take, it seems very clear that the Frostbite engine is a huge pain to utilize if you lot're making anything other then a first-person shooter. Sure, the engine allows for incredible visuals — I noted in my review of Anthem that information technology'south hands one of the best-looking titles I've played — but are those graphics actually worth the cost of having to fight with the tech you're using at every turn?

At the end of the day, I don't think they are. Amazing visuals are ever a treat, but other engines are capable of great graphics also, and they don't cause significant problems for developers that ultimately turn into technical problems for the player. Naturally, this makes Frostbite a correspondent to developer stress levels, with one BioWare employee that spoke to Kotaku stating that "It's hard enough to make a game. It's really difficult to brand a game where you accept to fight your ain tool set all the time."

If a game engine is a significant contributing gene to failing morale in a company'southward ranks, and if it's the directly crusade of numerous bugs and glitches, I think information technology's safe to say that it's time to look for a new i, no matter how groovy the graphics are.

Decision: Retire Frostbite for everyone — except Dice

Frostbite is simply as well problematic for anyone other than DICE to employ.

While DICE has managed to employ its Frostbite engine well for its games, it was designed for the beginning-person shooter titles information technology makes. Information technology was not fabricated for tertiary-person activeness games, role-playing games, or sports games, and it seems that as long as developers keep trying to use it for those genres, both players and programmers will suffer as a result.

It's unclear whether or non EA forces the companies nether information technology to apply Frostbite. Quondam BioWare general managing director Aaryn Flynn revealed that BioWare chose to employ it because of concerns about its current engine at the time, suggesting that they, besides as other companies under EA's wing, are not mandated to employ the engine. However, if that'southward the case, why go along using information technology now despite all the issues?

The reply to that question may never come up. Yet, one thing is certain — the Frostbite engine needs serious work if developers desire to take it beyond its get-go-person shooter roots.

This huge Xbox 'Quick Resume' update will give gamers more control

Xbox Insiders Update

This huge Xbox 'Quick Resume' update will requite gamers more than control

Microsoft is adding a new characteristic to Xbox consoles, assuasive you to permanently store upwards to ii games in a Quick Resume state at all times. The feature is heading out beginning to Xbox Insiders in the Alpha testing ring before hitting the general public.