Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

[canes21]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

Why can't EA use Frostbite2 engine on Madden 13? Frostbite2 makes animation transitions so seamless and lifelike, people moving about realistically. Can anyone with understanding explain.

Built for two completely different types of games. You can't just make the Frostbite 2 engine play out a football game.

Also, they both use the same animating tool. Battlefield 3 animates the characters with EA's ANT tool and so does Madden, NCAA, Fifa, etc.

[GGEden]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

Thanks. So basically, a new engine designed specifically for american football needs to be built? For instance, The ANT animation tool is used for all different types of sporting and non-sporting games. So it's the engine differences between BF3, Fifa, NHL, Madden, that is responsible for the different quality from each? What engines do NHL, FIFA use? Do NCAA and Madden share the same engine? What engines did NFL 2K5 and APF 2K8 use, what does NBA 2K11 use, are those engines propriety owned by 2K sports or not?

Also, why couldn't frostbite2 be used to build a football game? Eg, Natural Motions Euphoria engine is used for all sorts of different games -- red dead, star wars unleashed, backbreaker, icebreaker, etc. Aren't there are other renowned engines out there, like Unreal, which many different studios/games use? So, why would frostbite2 not work for sport?

Just trying to understand, thanks.

[GGEden]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

Eg: Unreal Engine

(taken from: Top 10 Game Engines )

Still, the main criticism levelled against it – usually by its competitors, we should say – is that the engine is geared towards first- (or third-) person shooters. Nevertheless, customers have managed to extend and rip apart the engine to power everything from Japanese-style RPGs to open-world action-racing games like The Wheelman.
One of the emerging usage groups is for MMO development. In order to give the engine a better standing against dedicated MMO solutions like HeroEngine and BigWorld, and emerging threats like CryENGINE, **** has tasked its China office with the development of Atlas, its persistent world server technology and MMO creation and management toolset.

[canes21]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

I'm not the best guy to be talking this over with, but the Frostbite 2 engine was built solely for FPS games. It was never intended to be used for a football game.

What Madden and NCAA run off is a number of "engines". I don't know exactly what, but the ANT tool is what they use to craft their animations. This is pretty much all I am sure of, but may possibly be wrong. If Mr. Cummings was still on, then he'd be the best person to explain this probably.

[hoop xyience]

Mr. Cummings complaining about people saying bad things about on the internet is akin to complaining the sky is blue. It should be water off a ducks back. With luck, this post will be case in point.

I'm happy to see Ian and Phil go because to me they play a significant role in the crap that has occurred year after year on next gen. I may be wrong, I know next to nothing on EA's inner workings and am not in any way invested enough to find out (I've discovered, to my great and everlasting chagrin, that not enough people are concerned when they displease me - thus my displeasure is forever wasted).

Unfortunately, while Madden 12 appears to be what I've wanted Madden to be for years I fail to understand how people can place faith in a game that they have not played based on reviews from sites that rarely have little bad to say. Fool me once and all that nonsense. Luckily, if Madden 12 actually turns out to be amazing and then Madden 13 etc. returns to the dark years, I"ll delete this post and tearfully claim how I always lamented the loss of Ian and Phil!

Out of all the comments I've read this one has stuck out to me....not afraid to bite your tongue and keeping it genuine. I feel almost the same as this guy when it come to this GEN madden. things are just being added back from the ps2 days of madden so somewhere down the line you lose faith in the people behind this franchise....Besides all of that M12 is what I've been looking for since 06 and these videos are just E3 build..I hope the final build hold up

[GGEden]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

I'm not the best guy to be talking this over with, but the Frostbite 2 engine was built solely for FPS games. It was never intended to be used for a football game.

What Madden and NCAA run off is a number of "engines". I don't know exactly what, but the ANT tool is what they use to craft their animations. This is pretty much all I am sure of, but may possibly be wrong. If Mr. Cummings was still on, then he'd be the best person to explain this probably.

It's cool, thanks for responding because I still learned a few things I didn't know before. But yeah, if Mr Cummings, or others can respond to educate a gamer on such things, that'd be appreciated.

[spit_bubble]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

...Ian, you're not apart of the company anymore so can you give us a better idea of what's going on over there? Your not on a "gag order" are you?

I guess I could, but I don't think it'd be all that wise. No reason to dwell on old stuff and air dirty laundry, especially against a place that was so great to me...

...When I left, IMO Madden was really headed in the right direction. Outside of that, not much I can say.

Sometimes silence speaks volumes...

Yes, Mr. Cummings, I see you have given your reason for leaving in another post... And I suppose it's rather pointless to speculate...

But still I just can't see this as a good thing. Madden finally gets on course, then these guys all jump ship???



I wonder just how much control they really had... And I wonder where Madden is headed in the future. Given EA the publisher's track record, it does not bode well.

[SteelerSpartan]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

ehh, as far as Madden goes Im kind of indifferent about this, because I just don't have all the facts about who was really making the decisions with the money/priorities.....that I disagreed with

Ian and Phil I guess did a commendable job at bringing the game back to a decent game of "Madden", that game we lost when we went to NG.........An Nfl Nut like me will enjoy their work(Especially this year providing theres no major bugs)

but its still not close enough to where I envisioned Next Gen NFL Football to be at in the year 2011 in terms of realism....and comes up a bit short when stacked against the other big sports games like NHL,Forza/GT,The Show,NBA 2k, and Fifa.....

Now that Madden finally has its feet under it again somewhat, its time for someone to truly innovate/evolve/enhance the realism in the series for the next decade and beyond

[GGEden]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

Saw a TSS video on this announcement of Mr Frazier leaving.

This comment from someone is interesting...

i think Cam Weber is bringing in his people to work on madden. so he's cleaning house with the devs who have been working on madden in the past. Cam Weber brought FIFA back from the dead and he' s going to do the same with madden.

CLM2180

[Dazraz]

I can't help but feel that there is something bigger going on in the background at EA that is causing so many to jump ship. Maybe in 12 months time things will be clearer & the reason for these departures will become more evident.

[bdolan33]

Re: Phil Frazier the Latest to Leave EA Sports Tiburon Studio

Wow, that was an unexpected sucker punch.

Good luck to Phil.

More like an unexpected winning lotto ticket, but to each their own I guess.

[ryan36]

He was probably holding the company back anyway. Good riddance

Are you kidding me?

[mirrored32]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

I don't really like to speculate, but it does 'shake' me a bit being that I have really enjoyed where madden 10 and beyond has been going.

all in all as a fan of Madden, I just hope that the direction madden 12 is going is where we go in the future.

resist major bugs or fix them, i am good.

as for Phil and Ian I wish them well and hope they don't stray to far away from the passion they held for the game in their years on the front lines of developing Madden.

i like a sim game and id on't like virtual trainers. I get the game for franchise mode and creating CAPS for it. so i hope that stays true along with the gameplay.

It just really does make me wonder when two people that were 'faces' of madden 'decide to move on' do. . . just not ready for the change i think. again too early to say my worry might be just in the names leaving.

as long as madden doesn't suffer the direction it is going as of Madden 12 I am ok.

[Nza]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

No offense intended to Phil here at all, but this isn't exactly like Gabe Newell leaving Valve or John Carmack leaving id. EA is clearly a pretty cookie cutter operation and while it's obviously important to get talented people to run the ship, which Phil clearly was, ultimately I don't think franchises like Madden are prone to massive swings in direction based on any single person staying or leaving. EA wouldn't roll like that. Companies like these try very hard to make sure noone is irreplaceable.

Now, Phil may be replaced by a corporate suckup who's entire interest lays with maximizing profits rather than expanding the game's core quality while maintaining enough of a profit margin to keep management off his back, which might have a negative effect on the series from our perspective, but ultimately the future direction of the series will in large part be dictated by M12's relative success. It makes sense to build on what works, and if M12 works, I don't think much will change focus wise. If it doesn't work as well as hoped, well chances are pressure would have been applied to people like Phil anyway and we'd see the same negative focus changes, Phil present or not.

[SeventhWard]

Re: Phil Frazier is Leaving EA Sports Tiburon

I'm stunned. Phil Frazier isn't making Madden anymore? This is more shocking to me than Ian's departure. He's been there for YEARS. Wow!

Aside from Madden, best wishes to Phil Frazier. Keep making games we love wherever you go.

-SeventhWard