EA DICE's Frostbite 3 engine doesn't support Wii U, said Patrick Bach, executive producer on the Battlefield franchise at the studio, in an interview with Eurogamer.

"We right now don't have support for the Wii U in the Frostbite engine," said Bach, explaining that "we don't want to back down from what we see as our low-spec machines."

Those "low-spec machines" are the main current-generation consoles, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Battlefield 4's lead development platform is Windows PC, according to Bach, and the game will also be available on PlayStation 4.

"We don't want to ship different games dependent on the platform," said Tobias Dahl, producer of Battlefield 4's single-player campaign. "We need to set the limit somewhere, to have the lowest spec for this title." Bach added that if DICE were going to make a Wii U title, it would want to use the system's unique hardware capabilities, such as its GamePad tablet controller.

"We could probably make a Wii U game in theory," said Bach. But in presenting a hypothetical PlayStation Vita version of Battlefield 4, he pointed out, "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?"

Bach continued, "It's about, where do you put your focus? And the Wii U is not a part of our focus right now."

"THE WII U IS NOT A PART OF OUR FOCUS RIGHT NOW"

The Frostbite 3 engine will serve as the framework for a number of Electronic Arts' next-generation titles. That includes Dragon Age 3: Inquisition and the upcoming Mass Effect title that is in development at BioWare Montreal, said Aaryn Flynn, general manager of that studio and BioWare Edmonton, on Twitter this week. EA has not announced Wii U versions of either of those games, or of any of its future titles.

Unreal Engine 4 is also being touted as "next-generation technology," and its creator, Epic Games, also isn't supporting Wii U. Mark Rein, Epic's vice president, said on Twitter that "UE4 [Unreal Engine 4] isn't supporting WiiU, Xbox 360 or PS3 - see our awesome UE3 [Unreal Engine 3] engine for those platforms [sic]."

Posted: Mar 31, 2013 11:55 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/29/4162584/frostbite-3-engine-doesnt-support-wii-u