Ever since EA announced that FIFA 18 on Nintendo Switch would be a “custom built” experience, the company has frequently positioned it as “the deepest portable game ever to be introduced by EA Sports FIFA.”
But, it’s clear that they have had to repeatedly fight against detractors that believe that their work on bringing their biggest brand to the portable home console has been half-baked – producer Andrei Lăzărescu even going as far as to share his hope that it isn’t seen as “a sh***y, second-rate game.”
“As much as we would have wanted to [use Frostbite] you can’t without making the whole engine work,” Lăzărescu explained to Dream Team FC.
“We intentionally chose to do a custom engine because we felt that rather and try and get Frostbite running and end up having to downsize things and making it just a smaller, lower-quality version of the PS4 and Xbox One versions, we wanted this to be a FIFA that stands on its own two feet.
“We want people to recognise it and play it for what it is rather than saying, ‘Hey, you’re getting a sh***y, second-rate game.’ This is a full FIFA that players will enjoy.”
Lazarescu adds that the Nintendo Switch version will look superior to that seen on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
“If you put the two together you won’t recognise them,” he shared. “When you dock it [and connect to the TV], it’s 1080p and 60 frames per second – Gen 3 [PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360] never run on this. We’re also using physics based rendering, another thing that Gen 3 did not have. We’re even putting ICONS in Ultimate Team – Gen 3 won’t have these either.”
FIFA 18 will release for Nintendo Switch worldwide on September 29th.
