EA: PC FIFA '09 Gimped Because Your Computers aren't as powerful as consoles

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/41519/EA-PC-FIFA-09-Gimped-Because-Your-Computers-Suck

Oh dear, EA's FIFA Soccer 09 community representative reckons that PCs aren't as powerful as consoles, and that's why the home computer build is significantly different from the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions:

The PC version of FIFA 09 is different to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions because of the CPU processing power required for the architecture of the game.

The majority of gamer's PC's do not have enough CPU processing power for this architecture, so FIFA09 on PC has been built to have the best possible graphics and gameplay engine while still being accessible to as many fans of the game as possible. If the architecture was identical to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, FIFA09 on PC would only be accessible to 1-3% of the PC systems on the market.

Having said that, FIFA09 on PC delivers a very deep gameplay engine, along with leading-edge visuals.

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/41543/EA-Clarifies-FIFA-09-PC-Comments

No no, you people are crazy! We never said your computers suck. No no, nothing of the sort!

Before I go on, I'd like to point out that Graphics power and CPU power are two very different technical parameters, and it's because of the CPU power that FIFA09 on PC can not (and does not) have the same architecture as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. The Graphics are a separate matter, and FIFA09 on PC has leading-edge graphics.

With that said, please allow me to further explain what I said earlier in this thread, as I believe that some of you may have misunderstood:

The PC version of FIFA 09 is different to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions because of the CPU processing power required for the architecture of the game.

The majority of gamers PC system's do not have enough CPU processing power[1] for this architecture[2], so FIFA09 on PC has been built to have the best possible graphics and gameplay engine while still being accessible to as many fans of the game as possible[3]. If the architecture was identical to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, FIFA09 on PC would only be accessible to 1-3% of the PC systems on the market.[4]

Having said that, FIFA09 on PC delivers a very deep gameplay engine, along with leading-edge visuals.

[1] I am aware that some PC systems are as capable as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (and that some are even more capable than them), but the majority of PC systems aren't (see [4]).

[2] The fact that a PC system can run Gears of War, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, etc. is irrelevant: the gameplay architecture of FIFA09 can not be compared to games of a different genre, and it is a fact that the majority of PC systems do not have enough CPU processing power for FIFA09 on PC to be the same as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.

[3] This means that, although some of your PC's may be able to 'handle' a better gameplay architecture, only 1-3% of PC systems on the market could 'handle' the same gameplay architecture as FIFA09 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (see [4]).

[4] "If the architecture was identical to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, FIFA09 on PC would only be accessible to 1-3% of the PC systems on the market." That is a fact.

However, because the PC continues to benefit from constant graphics and performance increases (and always will), the FIFA series on the PC will continue to improve each year, and it's architecture will, in time, 'surpass/exceed' the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 versions.

I wouldn't say that FIFA09 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 has "much, much better graphics" than FIFA09 on PC, but that's a matter of opinion.

FIFA09 on PC was optimized so that it has the best possible graphics and gameplay engine, while still being accessible to as many fans of the game as possible (so if the game had better graphics, it would require a better graphics card, and it wouldn't be as accessible to the fans of the game).

I didn't say that FIFA 2010 on PC will (or won't) be the same as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game (because I do not know whether it will (or won't) be, at this moment in time).

i can count about 3 people on this board who are interested in football to begin with, and one of them is me. my point being, why even bother?Jinroh_basic

what? there's two of us in this very thread, and it was created a couple minutes ago. There are millions of football fans that play football games.

orly? on this board? try looking up those FIFA threads some blokes made from time to time, and i bet you'd be hardpressed to find a thread that has more than 5 replies.

as a matter of fact, i'm inclined to think that the tc doesn't even play football games, and this thread is more about EA and multiplat bashing than anything else.

[QUOTE="Jinroh_basic"]i can count about 3 people on this board who are interested in football to begin with, and one of them is me. my point being, why even bother?F1_2004

what? there's two of us in this very thread, and it was created a couple minutes ago. There are millions of football fans that play football games.

I was so excited for this game based on previous news. Now my hopes are dashed. I'm a huge fan of the sports game genre, but the PC is still my only current gaming platform. I dislike being excluded by publishers so much.

[QUOTE="Jinroh_basic"]i can count about 3 people on this board who are interested in football to begin with, and one of them is me. my point being, why even bother?F1_2004

what? there's two of us in this very thread, and it was created a couple minutes ago. There are millions of football fans that play football games.

But is the PC their platform of choice? That's the question..

I downloaded and played the demo on my PS3... (Demo was 750ish MB) What are they talking about? This game doesn't look CPU heavy since theres no physics and super smart AIs. (Doesn't take a genious to program AIs to follow the play book.)

EA sports is the biggest scam on gaming IMO... Recycling the same gameplay (well its sports but at least have something new aside the rosters!!) and charging it full price on release. They're just either too lazy to properly program a PC version, blaming piracy (seems like a hip thing for devs these days), or someone screwed around with their surveys saying the average computer is P1 200Mhz, with 256mb of ram, and a 3dfx voodoo card...

Guys, you all need to chill out a little.

The aveage PC has a dual-core CPU at best. The number of people who have a single core CPU is likely to still be very high. Very few have one of the new 4 core CPU's.

If I understand this right the X-Box 360 has a triple core CPU. The Playstation 3 CELL processor has as many as 8. The main part of the CELL processor is called the PPE. One of its main jobs is to assign work to the 8 SPE's. These things act like a standard CPU.

Its sounds to me what they are doing a poor job of saying is that the way the game is programmed for the consoles won't work well on the PC. This would be why it had to be redone for us. Chances are if you play both the console version and the PC version you will see very little difference.

With that said it seems odd that anyone would need that kind of power to run a sports game. Even if you factor in graphics designed to be as reailistic as possible it still seems like an excessive amount of processing power to use.

If my assessment of this is correct then there is a real chance LucasArts was actually telling the truth about Force Unleashed.

How does EA explain PES 2008 and 2009 on PC ? It looks great and runs on my freaking p4 2.6ghz Singlecore CPU!

Looks like im gonna have to go with PES again this year, good thing they got the Champions League License.

PES 2009 Champions League Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRCAa9eu-s8

btw I played the fifa 09 demo, its a minor Graphic Update from last year with same crappy Gameplay and somehow broken Controls that didnt exist in 08...

simply because EA is lazy... why did they not say the same thing on crysis? following that logic then blaming piracy because crapsis did not sell well. it contradicts each other... because they say that "1-3% of the PC systems on the market". it implies that their target audience for crapsis is only "1-3% of the PC systems on the market". so don't blame piracy ea.. you just have to rethink your ways... DRM, target PC specs, etc...

by the way. i'm also a football fan.

Here we go again, another Star Wars TFU? Anyway, isn't this old news? What a lame excuse, really. Lazy bastards, it's not like it wouldn't work on older PCs, I mean that's why PC games have video options.:|

It looks like they din't bother making a PC version, I mean it's not even making, it's just porting, since it was easier to just update an older engine.

I'm not really complaining, because thanks to consoles and their DX 9 level graphics, I'm able to play recent games(the ones that are ports) on my old PC. But what about those gamers with high-end PCs, who got DX 10 cards and Vista, those who were promised DX 10 games? Maybe they should also blame the developers they're not making better looking games for their PCs.

So as I've said this is just a lame excuse, it's not because many people don't have PCs able to run the game at consoles level.

simply because EA is lazy... why did they same the same thing on crysis? following that logic then blaming piracy because crapsis did not sell well. it contradicts each other... because they say that "1-3% of the PC systems on the market". it implies that their target audience for crapsis is only "1-3% of the PC systems on the market". so don't blame piracy ea.. you just have to rethink your ways... DRM, target PC specs, etc...

by the way. i'm also a football fan.

aoshi_shinumori

Guys, you all need to chill out a little.

The aveage PC has a dual-core CPU at best. The number of people who have a single core CPU is likely to still be very high. Very few have one of the new 4 core CPU's.

If I understand this right the X-Box 360 has a triple core CPU. The Playstation 3 CELL processor has as many as 8. The main part of the CELL processor is called the PPE. One of its main jobs is to assign work to the 8 SPE's. These things act like a standard CPU.

Its sounds to me what they are doing a poor job of saying is that the way the game is programmed for the consoles won't work well on the PC. This would be why it had to be redone for us. Chances are if you play both the console version and the PC version you will see very little difference.

With that said it seems odd that anyone would need that kind of power to run a sports game. Even if you factor in graphics designed to be as reailistic as possible it still seems like an excessive amount of processing power to use.

If my assessment of this is correct then there is a real chance LucasArts was actually telling the truth about Force Unleashed.

Drosa

Edit: lol I forgot about the DS.

they should blame themselves! and that lucas arts thing? on their force unleashed? yeah they sound the same. they sound like crap.

Its sounds to me what they are doing a poor job of saying is that the way the game is programmed for the consoles won't work well on the PC. This would be why it had to be redone for us. Chances are if you play both the console version and the PC version you will see very little difference.

Drosa

No there is a noticeable difference, graphics and gameplay two key aspects of the game are still not on par with the console versions.

now here's what he has to say...

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/41568/EA-Producer-Explains-FIFA-09-PC-Problems

I'm going to give you the straight goods here. We heard you last year when many of you on the forums were asking for "NG on PC". On FIFA 08 360/PS3, the gameplay and the rendering were both different than FIFA 08 PC. At the start of the FIFA 09 PC cycle, we looked at what it would take to get 360/PS3 gameplay and rendering to work on PC. What we learned quickly is that there is a big difference between the gameplay and the rendering.

For the rendering, it was very scalable - same as Crysis, CoD4, etc. The better your graphics card, the better we could make FIFA PC look. If you didn't have the best card, the game would play the same, but wouldn't look as great. That's what you expect for any PC game. When it came to gameplay, the story was different. When we re-wrote the gameplay for FIFA 360/PS3 a couple years ago, we took full advantage of the multiple, multi-core processors (actually 3 essentially dual-core CPU's on 360, and 6 available Cell processors on PS3). The bottleneck for getting "NG on PC" was the CPU (i.e. it was AI, not graphics). Unfortunately, unlike graphics/rendering, you can't scale gameplay depending on the CPU in the machine because the game needs to "play" the same on each machine - you can't just turn off the decisions, positioning, or inverse kinematics for some of the players.

Why does FIFA 360/PS3 gameplay use so much CPU compared to Crysis, CoD4, etc.? It's because of the depth of the gameplay (21 players making 1,000 decisions/second, the new animation system, etc.) - very different from the amount of gameplay ever running in an FPS. This meant if we ported the 360/PS3 gameplay to PC and optimized it, we would have to increase the minimum spec on the CPU to a level where only around ~5% of FIFA PC gamers would meet it. As much as any of us wanted to do this, it did not make sense.

Instead, we decided to do the work of bringing a big improvement to the graphics (as many of you have noted), further polish and enhance our deep gameplay engine, and work on some PC-specific features. We didn't want to just give you a port, but rather the best experience for FIFA on the PC. This included the mouse controls for the keyboard gamers, the online widgets, the higher-res menus, and fully customizable controls.

Hope you found this helpful. For those who have been with FIFA on the PC for a while, you'll recognize that FIFA 09 is the biggest investment we've put in the platform in a while. It's a sign of things to come.

What the flying **** are these people smoking?F1_2004

now here's what he has to say...

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/41568/EA-Producer-Explains-FIFA-09-PC-Problems

I'm going to give you the straight goods here. We heard you last year when many of you on the forums were asking for "NG on PC". On FIFA 08 360/PS3, the gameplay and the rendering were both different than FIFA 08 PC. At the start of the FIFA 09 PC cycle, we looked at what it would take to get 360/PS3 gameplay and rendering to work on PC. What we learned quickly is that there is a big difference between the gameplay and the rendering.

For the rendering, it was very scalable - same as Crysis, CoD4, etc. The better your graphics card, the better we could make FIFA PC look. If you didn't have the best card, the game would play the same, but wouldn't look as great. That's what you expect for any PC game. When it came to gameplay, the story was different. When we re-wrote the gameplay for FIFA 360/PS3 a couple years ago, we took full advantage of the multiple, multi-core processors (actually 3 essentially dual-core CPU's on 360, and 6 available Cell processors on PS3). The bottleneck for getting "NG on PC" was the CPU (i.e. it was AI, not graphics). Unfortunately, unlike graphics/rendering, you can't scale gameplay depending on the CPU in the machine because the game needs to "play" the same on each machine - you can't just turn off the decisions, positioning, or inverse kinematics for some of the players.

Why does FIFA 360/PS3 gameplay use so much CPU compared to Crysis, CoD4, etc.? It's because of the depth of the gameplay (21 players making 1,000 decisions/second, the new animation system, etc.) - very different from the amount of gameplay ever running in an FPS. This meant if we ported the 360/PS3 gameplay to PC and optimized it, we would have to increase the minimum spec on the CPU to a level where only around ~5% of FIFA PC gamers would meet it. As much as any of us wanted to do this, it did not make sense.

Instead, we decided to do the work of bringing a big improvement to the graphics (as many of you have noted), further polish and enhance our deep gameplay engine, and work on some PC-specific features. We didn't want to just give you a port, but rather the best experience for FIFA on the PC. This included the mouse controls for the keyboard gamers, the online widgets, the higher-res menus, and fully customizable controls.

Hope you found this helpful. For those who have been with FIFA on the PC for a while, you'll recognize that FIFA 09 is the biggest investment we've put in the platform in a while. It's a sign of things to come.

aoshi_shinumori

Maybe I'm wrong but I knew the xbox 360 had 1 CPU with 3 cores and the PS3 had 1 Cell processor with 7 cores.

It looks like they either have no idea what their talking about and if this is so then there's no wonder they couldn't do a proper PC version of the game or they came up with this lie for their excuse thinking that people will believe them if they go technical about this stuff.

Crysis was one of the most advanced games of its time (not even maxable with the mainstream PC's at release) and managed strong sales well over $1M. What kind of **** are EA trying to shovel with their excuses of FIFA being too advanced for most PC gamers? Crysis and similar games before it pretty much prove that one does not need to design PC games for coffee shop or public library PC's in order to get good sales.

Then again we're talking about EA here, they're a bunch of tw@ts.

Crysis was one of the most advanced games of its time (not even maxable with the mainstream PC's at release) and managed strong sales well over $1M. What kind of **** are EA trying to shovel with their excuses of FIFA being too advanced for most PC gamers? Crysis and similar games before it pretty much prove that one does not need to design PC games for coffee shop or public library PC's in order to get good sales.

Then again we're talking about EA here, they're a bunch of tw@ts.

F1_2004

Happy now? No Heath any more!

This is becoming more and more **** i know tonnes of people who have computers that are more powerful than the X360 and the PS3, this is just stupid i like Fifa but why buy it if i cant have the best experience because i'm one of the "1-3%" Not to sound rude but that 1-3% is most likely the gamers. That being said the other computers arn't for games only the 1-3% it might shock EA that the 97-99% dont play computer games instead they play X360 or PS3.

I know it's to maximise profit since they dont want people complaining "my computer cant run it" but seriosly GET OVER IT.

if they make games for current gen consoles then they should make the same quality on pc's now..