Madden NFL 18 News Post

Madden NFL 18 Will Transition to the Frostbite Engine

05:50 PM - January 31, 2017 by jpdavis82

EA announced during today's Electronic Arts Q3 2017 earnings conference call, Madden NFL 18 will make its transition to the Frostbite engine. The same engine is used in FIFA 17, with plans to bring it to the NBA and NHL series within the next couple of years.

Quote:


	Our Madden NFL franchise will transition to the Frostbite engine with Madden NFL 18, unlocking major visual advancements and new gameplay experiences that will excite dedicated Madden players, football fans, and sports fans overall.

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Member Comments

# 21 Critical Kills @ 01/31/17 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KennyJ1976


	Honestly, I believe the Frostbite Engine is all hype. I play FIFA on a regular basis and besides the better lighting, and slightly better physics, I really don't see much of a difference between FIFA 17 and FIFA 14. So I'm not expecting a significant jump from Madden 17 to Madden 18.

What? There's a huge difference with interactions between players and the physics as well... I am expecting the same for Madden

# 22 jfsolo @ 01/31/17 09:30 PM

It will be better of course, but as has been mentioned, how big a leap they make will be partially determined by how much more of the problematic legacy coding they are able to strip out during this development cycle.

Regardless, I'm excited by this news, I expected it to be another year off.

# 23 4thQtrStre5S @ 01/31/17 09:38 PM

I expected M18 to be run by Frostbite...I can definitely imagine an improvement to animations, uniforms and how they interact with the player model, general physics, and such....Also, if Battlefield 1 is any indication of ability and quality of the engine, if the Goodyear Blimp crashes onto the field, it will be an awesome sight..

# 24 PhillyPhanatic14 @ 01/31/17 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4thQtrStre5S


	I expected M18 to be run by Frostbite...I can definitely imagine an improvement to animations, uniforms and how they interact with the player model, general physics, and such....Also, if Battlefield 1 is any indication of ability and quality of the engine, if the Goodyear Blimp crashes onto the field, it will be an awesome sight..

Or if the field explodes during the kickoff return like in Dark Knight Rises

# 25 HenryClay1844 @ 01/31/17 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas


	Anybody that plays FIFA religiously that can say how much it changed that game outside of visually? Was it still all pretty much the same animations and such or did that completely change? I ask because if they're still going to be dealing heavily with the "legacy code" that has plagued things for the last ten years then this isn't going to make much of a difference. If it allows them to start fresh and build certain aspects from the ground up, namely OL play and the passing game, then it could be great.

FIFA 17 is the worst FIFA of all time. The coding is horrible. The ball moves in unrealistic ways to bend to a character. Just look at some of the videos on youtube that talk about the awful ball AI this year. If that is an indication of what Frostbite does for sports games, look out Madden.

# 26 Jr. @ 01/31/17 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfsolo


	It will be better of course, but as has been mentioned, how big a leap they make will be partially determined by how much more of the problematic legacy coding they are able to strip out during this development cycle. Regardless, I'm excited by this news, I expected it to be another year off.

I thought they would have to re-write the code for a new engine. Is that not the case with this?

# 27 PhillyPhanatic14 @ 01/31/17 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HenryClay1844


	FIFA 17 is the worst FIFA of all time. The coding is horrible. The ball moves in unrealistic ways to bend to a character. Just look at some of the videos on youtube that talk about the awful ball AI this year. If that is an indication of what Frostbite does for sports games, look out Madden.

Lol. Might wanna play the game before you post dumb stuff.

# 28 issaknife @ 01/31/17 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HenryClay1844


	FIFA 17 is the worst FIFA of all time. The coding is horrible. The ball moves in unrealistic ways to bend to a character. Just look at some of the videos on youtube that talk about the awful ball AI this year. If that is an indication of what Frostbite does for sports games, look out Madden.

I've heard the exact opposite, and from the little bit of gameplay I've seen, it looks like a good game. Also, no way in hell is it worse than fifa 14. That game was pure garbage.

Sent from my SM-G386W using Tapatalk

# 29 Cowboy008 @ 01/31/17 11:35 PM

Can't wait to see what the Frostbite engine brings to Madden 18.

# 30 bxphenom7 @ 01/31/17 11:37 PM

Well this was obviously coming ever since the announcement FIFA had moved to Frostbite. Please be worth picking up.

# 31 bad_philanthropy @ 01/31/17 11:50 PM

I play a ton of FIFA, and have played a ton of 16 and 17. The move to Frostbite imo was an overall minor leap. I'm not saying that it won't eventually be the groundwork for huge advances, and workflow improvements, but I was actually surprised how much the game felt and moved like FIFA 15 (rather than 16).

Player models, and certain visual flourishes like lighting and sweat did make a decent jump, but it's not monumental, and the game still uses a lot of old assets that look poor. The lighting on the grass also took a bit of a step back. Animations are more or less the same.

More notable is the lod for the general gameplay view makes it look very similar to FIFA 16 and mutes some of the lighting and model improvements.

There are some nice physics upgrades with the ball and player interaction, but there are also some new and glitchy issues with both. For instance, at times the animations feel too long and control when involved in certain situations and interactions feels less responsive than years past. The game feels like a work in progress here.

Overall 17 just feels like it's still in the transition phase with its tech. Its Frostbite innovations seems partially implemented or not completely mastered by the devs. It's not really an indictment, but I'm not expecting anything monumental or all that dramatic for Madden 18 this year. I suspect it will be very similar looking and feeling to 17.

# 32 dmslapped @ 02/01/17 12:40 AM

Can't wait for a helmet to explode like a battlefield building.
Kidding obviously, but wouldn't it be cool if the jerseys and field got a bit torn up

# 33 johnnyg713 @ 02/01/17 01:21 AM

Very exciting. I passed on madden 17 because of the announcement of the frostbite engine last year. I'm going to Be optimistic and say madden's jump from 17 will be greater than fifas jump from 16 - 17. The tech has been out longer which gives the dev team the luxury of learning from fifas experience. Not to mention madden has probably been developed using the frostbite engine for quite some time now.

# 34 Americas Team @ 02/01/17 01:28 AM

Just get the player movement realistic already, add custom camera angles, and dynamic weather.

# 35 carnalnirvana @ 02/01/17 03:39 AM

new engine same AI....

same issues that look prettier

# 36 shadowkaga @ 02/01/17 06:36 AM

I'm just hoping for madden to return to pc with frostbite

# 37 bad_philanthropy @ 02/01/17 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowkaga


	I'm just hoping for madden to return to pc with frostbite

One thing worth noting about FIFA 17 PC and its move to Frostbite is that the game is no longer moddable.

The community is working on it, but it's been a tough nut to crack so far.

Of course EA does not support modding for the game either.

# 38 Rebel10 @ 02/01/17 10:01 AM

I think this is driven by Sony and Microsoft's incremental hardware releases w/ PS4 Pro and Scorpio. Frostbite is a powerful engine that scales better across variable hardware, and the transition to Frostbite should enable the team to progressively enhance the game for the PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio next Fall.

It's a good change to make from a technical point of view, but I wouldn't expect it to change anything in regard to locomotion, living worlds, or anything like that. Not that those changes are ruled out, but they don't come along with adopting a new graphics engine.

# 39 Critical Kills @ 02/01/17 10:10 AM

Why would that matter since Madden is not on the PC?

# 40 Critical Kills @ 02/01/17 10:11 AM

One thing I hope they can get now w Frostbite is the ability to see smaller/shorter players who can run fast (think Darren Sproles for example) have very fast leg "churn" and by that I mean their legs move so quickly to move them around the field that it's almost difficult to even see their legs.

Madden really loses a lot of the look of speed because of the lack of leg churn IMO.

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