EA Admits Ignite Footage was Pre-rendered and Won't Power the PC Version of EA Sports Titles

[Shawn Zipay]

EA Sports has come out and said that the Ignite engine trailer from yesterday was essentially a load of crap. It was pre-rendered, but then again most everyone figured it was.

Steve Frost, Global Communications Manager for EA Sports:

"The video uses assets pulled directly from the in-game engines, and was rendered to create this first look multi-product trailer. It's representative of where we expect our games will be when they launch."

Oh "representative" of the final look? I read you loud and clear.

However, Brad Hilderbrand, a Communications Specialist at EA, said that they would be offering a closer look at Ignite come E3 2013. He says that "given the timing and planning required for the Xbox One reveal event the EA Sports Ignite video was developed in a pre-rendered video format." He goes on to say, "we'll be showing off the game using in-game assets at E3."

Awesome! I sure can't wait to see this running on my PC!

"Ignite will be the engine that drives our sports games on PS4 and Xbox One," Frost said. "It will not be used for FIFA 14 on PC."

Well screw you too. I wonder what possible reason they have that the PC market is going to get the shaft on this one.

(via Joystiq)

[K-16]

I'm assuming you were being sarcastic in terms of why the PC market is being hosed, but I'd like to share my findings for the sake of trying to understand EA's twisted mind by seeing things in their naive perspective. It appears that despite the PC version was not developed like the Wii/PSV version, it sold like crap (assuming these are remotely accurate numbers as I don't have access to NPD statistics, and the investor information only provides vague total revenue numbers for each platform) compared to the console versions (excluding Nintendo obviously). It looks like EA would prefer to focus their PC-related resources to the Korean market with FIFA Online 3's continued success, rather than putting effort into the retail versions where players oddly end up choosing the console version anyways. They probably don't want to cut off the PC version completely, because most of us would be suckered into buying it as a digital download (given their apparent high sales in digital distribution for PC titles in general).

[Stev0esque]

Makes sense. I Don't even like sports games so it makes no difference to me whether the "Whatever" engine makes it to my preferred platform or not. Now there are probably people who do, but they're not as common as those who play other types of PC games.

[K-16]

Actually it partially doesn't. After giving it more thought, I realized I contradicted myself as the Ignite engine is also being made available to the PS4. If the engine can run under the x86 architecture, then it should be able to run on PCs to some extent. One argument I would make (against myself?) is that the PS4 is only one configuration they would worry about. The PC market, on the other hand, would require a lot more work to have a diverse range of compatibility for the differing hardware and software that each PC gamer uses.

So EA must've decided to use old technology that already runs on PCs without blowing them up, since their main PC market for European Football is apparently Korea. And who knows? If more PC gamers demand more support, we might end up getting a localized version of FIFA Online 4 in the future. Based on EA's statistics alone (and not from actual consumer opinions), this could be the feasible plan to calm PC gaming FIFA fans.

(Worth noting EA is focusing on the PC market in North America for franchises like Battlefield and SimCity. Sales for those kicked @$$. So it's not that they hate PC gamers in general.)

[CptainCrunch]

Sports games have always dominated on the console. The controller makes it much more fun and easy than the PC. It's the only game genre that I feel doesnt work well on PC. Well, that and side-fighters like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

Which is really a shame that the industry doesn't put good controller support in PCs as just about everyone that I know that does play these games also has a third party controller to play them with. Instead the developers tend to ignore PC, which I guess is easier especially with it being the smallest market.

[Anarchy1]

That's a shame. I've been enjoying hooking my PC up to my TV and playing some FIFA 13 with my Xbox controller over the past couple of weeks. Although to be honest, there is no reason why I couldn't have just bought it for my 360 and used my 360 to play it, but whatever, I'm a PC fanboy.