DICE explains reasoning behind lack of Battlefield 4 Wii U, says Frostbite isn’t supported currently
What started out as a simple question ended up turning into a complicated answer.
You may remember how at Nintendo’s E3 2011 press conference, EA CEO John Riccitiello – now gone from the company – essentially promised Battlefield for the Wii U. He teased: “Imagine a shooter, like Battlefield, with jaw-dropping graphics and smooth character animations of the Frostbite engine, brought to you on a Nintendo system with that breakthrough controller.” Now along with Battlefield 3, Wii U won’t be getting Battlefield 4.
So what exactly is preventing a Wii U port? DICE was approached by Eurogamer in search of some answers.
You can read up on the company’s reasoning below, which also includes a confirmation that the game’s Frostbite engine currently isn’t supported on Wii U.
Eurogamer: Some Wii U owners are disappointed to see Battlefield 4 is not coming to the console. What, exactly, is the reason for that?
Patrick Bach: The biggest problem we have right now is we don’t want to back down from what we see as our low spec machines. We right now don’t have support for the Wii U in the Frostbite engine. The reason for that is it takes development time. What should we focus on to create the best possible Battlefield experience? We are now focused on PC and the current-gen platforms, and then there might be other platforms in the future that we can’t talk about…
Eurogamer: One of them you can.
Patrick Bach: Yes, in theory, but we won’t. But it’s important to understand it’s about focus and setting the bar. Where do you start? What’s the minimum? What’s the maximum? What’s the scale in-between.
Tobias Dahl: We have long experience with scalability. We’ve always been making PC games. But we don’t want to ship different games dependent on the platform. We need to set the limit somewhere, to have the lowest spec for this title.
Patrick Bach: We could probably make a Wii U game in theory. But to make the most out of the Wii U, that’s a different game because of the different peripherals. We want to utilise all the power of each console.
Eurogamer: Are you saying it’s not about the power of the Wii U itself, rather, it’s about the controller?
Patrick Bach: It’s everything. We could potentially make a Battlefield port for the Vita. But what would that game be? Is it something we could scale down from what you saw in the gameplay video, or would it have to be a complete redesign of the whole game?
It’s about, where do you put your focus? And the Wii U is not a part of our focus right now.
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Tobias Dahl: Going back to the Wii U, it’s also a matter of scope. We can only work with so many platforms per person per day. It’s a time-consuming thing to be a multi-platform title.
