The Gaming Tailgate Video Podcast
While Microsoft and Sony have showcased some of the potential with new technology, this interview provides the first mention of how EA SPORTS may utilize the Xbox One & PS4. Focusing on NBA Live 14, Holt discusses how new player tendencies and apparel can be pushed directly to the console. Holt also talks about how both console manufacturers utilized feedback from software manufacturers to make their console more developer friendly.
Continue on to read excerpts of the interview and then share your thoughts with the community.
Question: What features about the new consoles are the most exciting to the development team?
Answer: There are two ways to look at it. The sheer power and new ceilings to play around and work with, we look and see what are things we can do on these consoles we can’t do on the 360 and PS3. Our platform and engine for the consoles, Ignite, allows us to build a common tech and leverage the talent across the team. It’s a few things: Human intelligence, so we can really use the processing power of the boxes to get a lot more contextual area in the artificial intelligence, so they play more like the real-life counterparts. We can do four times more the calculations per second. There’s true player motion — we want to drive that authenticity and from authentic locomotion get a more authentic athletic performance in the game. We have uncompressed animation to give you a more smooth experience as you control these athletes in the virtual field. Also, the stadiums, the crowds, the presentation, the ambiance happening around the field — that in and of itself can also be more intelligent. If it’s fourth quarter, and the home team is down and then hits three threes in a row, the crowd should be going crazy. And we’ve got things where we’re getting data within an hour of it happening, and we can push the state, creating a constant experience that comes alive.
Question: So if you’re playing, say, Madden NFL and you see how players are controlling the game, are you able to change the game in real time?
Answer: For example, with NBA Live, they want to keep it relevant and current. So if a player changes their play style, learns a new shot over the summer and can suddenly shoot a baseline 3-pointer, we can have that feed into the game. If there’s a new shoe from Nike, we can push that. If a player breaks his nose and wears a face mask, we can push that. It’s more authentic with the real world of sports around it.
Question: Which features are the most difficult to work with? I know the Internet went crazy with Xbox One always being online and not being able to trade games. Does that affect you?
Answer: It doesn’t. We’ve always looked at it as this is a lot more developer friendly than the last one. There were some major tech changes from PS2 to PS3 and from Xbox to Xbox 360. This time, Microsoft and Sony took to heart the software and the developers, so they’re a lot more developer friendly.
Click here to read all of Abraham Aboraya's interview with Holt.
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