FIFA 18 lands on Nintendo Switch next month and some fans are worried as the Switch version will come without some features that are in the other versions. Andrei Lazarescu, the lead developer for FIFA 18 for Nintendo Switch, sat down with Eurogamer at this years Gamescom to elaborate on why some features aren’t present and explained how difficult it would be to include them.
Andrei Lazarescu on Ultimate Team:
“If you look at the history of Ultimate Team on the likes of Sony or Microsoft – I think it’s a seven year history if I recall correctly – that player base has also been accustomed to it already, and has been educated about it already, you know, so if you throw everything from the get go to a completely new player base, you might not get the desired result… even this [as it is] might be too much, it’s huge.”
The Frostbite engine powers a bulk of features that will be present on the other consoles. The Switch FIFA 18, however, utilises a custom-built engine and Lazarescu goes on to talk about how difficult it would be to get these features included, in particular, the Journey feature:
“The hardware is very difficult, it would take an army of people, if it was possible, to be done.”
You can read more of Lazarescu’s comments in the full Eurogamer article here.
And there still going to charge full price.
I’m no fan of devs missing stuff out or cutting corners but right now I’m not as cynical as you – The Switch version seems to add modes. And at the end of the day it’s the version you can take everywhere with you and play on the hoof. And I think enough has gone into this version of the game not for it to be considered a gimped version in the same way some Wii ports were considered years ago. So I think it’s probably worthy of a full price tag. I don’t think this version will sell quite as well as PS4/XBox gamers because the fanbase largely game on those consoles. But if Switch has taught us anything it’s that boy, there is a massive appetite!
Nobody that plays Fifa gives a flying fuck about the portable part though ,that said Ultimate team is THE game mode to play on FIFA in my experience 95% of the people I met and know only play that mode exclusively so yeah this sucks.
Checking sales of Fifa 08, which is a year I know both PSP and DS got proper releases, the handheld game sales of FIFA amounted to just under a third of the total console FIFA sales. If we’re understating it one in four that pays FIFA gives a flying fuck about the portable part.
But you’re spot on about Ultimate team pretty much BEING fifa. That is /why/ you get FIFA these days.
So it’s good they included it in the Switch version, unlike Journey I believe that mode to be absolutely essential.
Might’ve just cancelled my preorder if it wasn’t present… But then again I could just play that mode on PS4, so not sure.
Do PS3 and 360 have these features or is it something that has only recently been put on PS4 and Xbone ?
FIFA Ultimate team has been THE game mode for the past 8 years it was first released on ps3 and xbox and a must have for any serious FIFA player. He gives a good awnser though the Switch can’t handle the frostbyte engine and it would take an army of people to make it work. I’m sure you people will turn this around again and blame EA for it lol
hahahaha….
I laugh for one thing.
They used the Frostbyte engine… an engine for FPS games… Great choice…
So no Frostbite engine in the near future huh? bummer..
I thought I read somewhere that they’re replacing it soon…we’ll see what the future holds.
At least we have 60fps and not 1080 res with 30fps like NBA 2K18
If it’s “not possible”, then don’t waste your time on it.
If they cannot deliver a full experience then they shouldn’t make any decisions based on an incomplete game sales. I am a FIFA fan and might not be buying the Switch version because it is lacking, as simple as that.
Simple in-engine custscenes would “take an army” to get done. Right.
I understand that including Journey is a lot more work than it’s worth (I won’t miss it)
but making up an excuse like that is cute at best. Just say it’s not cost efficient.
Typical reaction from people on this website what if the man is simply telling the truth? I’m fairly sure they know more about making games than you do.
If it were the truth it would imply nobody could implement cinematic cutscenes in a Switch game whatsoever.
It would mean something like Black Flag or Mass Effect 3 on Wii U was impossible.
Clearly not the case, so these people in the know about how to make games are making obvious use of hyperbole.
No, what they’re really saying is they found no way to run the same exact game data through the engine they made for Switch. That it would take the kind of army it took to originally develop Frostbite to see that done.
(or a full actual port of frostbite)
True, but he thing you do when you’re porting and can’t run the exact same data, is to convert/remake it, and this is what they’re not willing to do. It’s costly and time consuming. And easy, but not worth it.
That’s not even the only part of this that’s completely farfetched. The same people go on pretending the Switch userbase can’t handle a large set of features they’ve never seen before. However, if they’re fans of FIFA – they’ve already played this full set of features on different consoles. They’re the same users. (and if they weren’t it would be no different from a new user on the other two platforms)
Are you still blindly going by what they’re saying on account of game development experience?
Since your obviously smarter than them why don’t you work for them? That said Ill take there word over some random dude on a website any day of the week since they actually make the game lol.
They’re not unable to do it, they’re lying about why they don’t – not a matter of somebody being smarter.
If you feel like believing their excuse for their own failure go ahead, but reconsider doing that on principle.
I’m having this entire discussion out of principle , even if your right. Every time a game gets downgraded or skipped for a Nintendo console its never Nintendo’s fault or the fact that they have made another gimmick console with weaker graphics than the competition. It’s almost like the entire industry is teaming up against Nintendo wich is far from true. If the ps4 was a Nintendo console I would buy it day 1 and many other people with me. Been playing Nintendo since before most of you people where even born and back in the days they offered what other consoles offer right now.
Oh, the Switch being a Tegra-run mobile console is definitely why they can’t just copy-paste Frostbite to begin with. That is on Nintendo for sure. However there’s no way you can have PC-like architecture on a mobile device, and so no matter how powerful the Switch was there would be no option but do a proper port.
That’s what these people are doing, they’re porting the game. Engine from scratch, admirable stuff.
They just chose to not port Journey, becasue essentially they can make the same money without porting it. A good business decision, I’m only criticizing their statement.
As for making powerful consoles, the N64 and GameCube are more or less proof that Nintendo making the strongest console in a gen isn’t the magic recipe to the “what if PS4 was the machine Nintendo was delivering right now” scenario.
They’ve had much more success making underpowered machines expanding the customer base – like the DS/3DS and Wii. I understand you would’ve preferred a third machine like PS4/X1, or maybe a Super WiiU, I might, but history says customers wouldn’t.
OH SNAP CRACKLE POP ROCKS BRO’S!
😵
“that player base has also been accustomed to it already, and has been educated about it already, you know, so if you throw everything from the get go to a completely new player base, you might not get the desired result… even this [as it is] might be too much, it’s huge.” ‘
That is the most bullshit answer I’ve ever heard. “We abandoned 3rd party support on the wii u and thus these are new players so we only want to give them part of the game at the same price until they are ready for more on which case they can buy another system and the game again at full price to enjoy the content”