Respawn Says Frostbite Wasn’t an Option for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
As you might know most EA games run using Frostbite, however the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, from Respawn Entertainment runs on Unreal Engine 4 instead. Of course while this may come as quite the surprise for all the EA fans out there, it turns out there’s a reason for this decision.
In a new interview with Game Informer, Respawn’s CEO Vince Zampella and Stig Asmussen, shared the reasons behind not using the infamous Frostbite engine EA is known for. According to the pair, using Frostbite “wasn’t even an option.” Asmussen elaborated a bit on their big decision saying, “When we started this team, this was even before Star Wars, I was the only person on the team and we knew we were going to start hiring a few more people and we needed to start building from the ground up. I did a little bit of research on Unreal, there was a couple of other options out there, and remember we aren’t EA at this point so Frostbite wasn’t even an option. I started tinkering around with it and was like ‘Wow, this is pretty powerful with what an individual developer can do with it, imagine what a whole team could do with it.'”
Additionally, despite what other sources have previously stated, Stig Asmussen commented that there isn’t a mandate by EA for them to use Frostbite as their game engine or to “change anything about the way that we’ve normally done things at Respawn.” Vince Zampella also commented on using Frostbite for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. He explained that “Frostbite is an engine that EA uses internally. At that point, we were an external studio so it wasn’t even available to us. Now, as part of EA, it would be available to us, but we’ll still make the choice on what’s best for the game because ultimately we are making something that has to be fun to play so it’s the tech that fits what you’re trying to do.”
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is set to drop for PS4, PC, and Xbox One on November 15, 2019. Do you have a preference for game engine between Unreal Engine 4 or Frostbite? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to keep it locked for updates!