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Frostbite is a
game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...
developed by
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, designed for cross-platform use on
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
, seventh generation game consoles PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,
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game consoles
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
, Xbox One and
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
and ninth generation game consoles
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and
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, in addition to usage in the cloud streaming service Google Stadia. The game engine was originally employed in the '' Battlefield'' video game series, but would later be expanded to other first-person shooter video games and a variety of other genres. To date, Frostbite has been exclusive to video games published by Electronic Arts.


History


Frostbite 1 and 1.5

The first iteration of the Frostbite game engine made its debut in the 2008 video game, '' Battlefield: Bad Company''. The engine was developed with an HDR Audio and Destruction 1.0. HDR Audio allowed differing sound levels to be perceived by the player whilst Destruction 1.0 allowed players to destroy the environment. A newer version of Frostbite would later be employed in ''
Battlefield 1943 ''Battlefield 1943'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by DICE (company), DICE and published by Electronic Arts for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 through digital distribution. It takes place in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater, Pacific Thea ...
'' (2009) and '' Battlefield: Bad Company 2'' (2010), which would come to be known as Frostbite 1.5. In the upgraded game engine, it was now possible for players to cause enough destruction to entirely demolish structures. This version was also employed in the multiplayer aspect of '' Medal of Honor'' (2010), becoming the first video game outside of the ''Battlefield'' series to run on Frostbite.


Frostbite 2

On 25 October 2011, Frostbite 2 made its debut in '' Battlefield 3''. Frostbite 2 features powerful upgrades such as deferred rendering and real-time radiosity. Also making its debut was Destruction 3.0, which made falling debris potentially lethal to the player. Further changes to the engine included the addition of suppressive fire and disabling vehicles before destroying them. For the first time in a game that was not a shooter nor developed by DICE, Frostbite was brought to the '' Need for Speed'' series with 2011's '' Need for Speed: The Run'', which was released on 15 November. It took a year for
EA Black Box EA Black Box (formerly Black Box Games) was a video game developer based in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1998 by former employees of Radical Entertainment and later acquired by Electronic Arts (EA). The developers are primarily ...
, the developer of ''Need for Speed: The Run'', to re-purpose the game engine for driving instead of shooting. On 21 May 2012, DICE rendering architect Johan Andersson said that future personal computer video games running on Frostbite would have to be played on 64-bit operating systems. On 23 October, '' Medal of Honor: Warfighter'' became the first game of its series to feature Frostbite in both single and multiplayer. On 26 March 2013, '' Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel'' became the first third-person shooter and last video game to employ Frostbite 2.


Frostbite 3


General usage

In March 2013, ''Battlefield'' executive producer Patrick Bach announced that Frostbite 3 would not support the Wii U, saying that "the Wii U is not a part of our focus right now." The third generation of Frostbite made its debut in ''
Battlefield 4 ''Battlefield 4'' is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released in October and November for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and is the ...
'' on 29 October. In the updated engine, the environments became much more dynamic upon the actions of the players and Destruction 4.0, which was known as ''Levolution'' in ''Battlefield 4''. On one map of ''Battlefield 4'', it was possible for players to destroy a dam, causing the entire map to be flooded by water. On 13 November in San Jose, DICE's Frostbite engine technical director Johan Andersson announced that future Frostbite games and an updated version of ''Battlefield 4'' would be powered by
Mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...
, a low-overhead rendering API co-developed by AMD and DICE. However, due to lack of interest and support, Mantle was phased out, with 2015's ''
Battlefield Hardline ''Battlefield Hardline'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in March 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Unlike the prev ...
'' being the last game to implement it. On 15 November, '' Need for Speed Rivals'' became the second game of its series to use the game engine and the first since the upgrade to Frostbite 3. First released on 25 February 2014, '' Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare'' became the first game of its series to run on Frostbite. On 18 November, the game engine made its debut in the action role-playing genre of video games with '' Dragon Age: Inquisition''. On 17 March 2015, ''
Battlefield Hardline ''Battlefield Hardline'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in March 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Unlike the prev ...
'' became the second game of its series to run on Frostbite 3. In November, '' Need for Speed'' and ''
Star Wars Battlefront ''Star Wars: Battlefront'' is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games based on the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Players take the role of characters from the franchise in either of two opposing factions in different time periods of ...
'' were both released under Frostbite, the 2016 '' Rogue One X-Wing VR Mission'' expansion for the latter game exclusive to the PlayStation VR and being the first VR title to use the engine. On 23 February 2016, '' Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2'' was released on the game engine. On 7 June, ''
Mirror's Edge Catalyst ''Mirror's Edge Catalyst'' is a first-person action-adventure platform game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in June 2016. It is a reboot of the 2008 game tha ...
'' became the first
action-adventure game The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...
to run on Frostbite. On 21 October, ''
Battlefield 1 ''Battlefield 1'' is a first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the tenth installment in the ''Battlefield'' series and the first main entry in the series since '' Battlefield 4'' in 2013. It was rele ...
'' became the third title of its series to be released under the third generation of the game engine. On 21 March 2017, '' Mass Effect: Andromeda'' was released on Frostbite. On 10 November, '' Need for Speed Payback'' was released, running on the game engine; a week later on November 17, '' Star Wars Battlefront II'' was the last game of 2017 to be released on Frostbite. 2018's ''
Battlefield V ''Battlefield V'' is a first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the eleventh main installment in the ''Battlefield'' series and the successor to 2016's ''Battlefield 1'', and was released for Microsoft ...
'' runs on the Frostbite 3 engine. In 2019, ''
Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
'', '' Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville'', and '' Need for Speed Heat'' were all released running Frostbite. In 2020, '' Star Wars: Squadrons'' is the second VR-compatible game to run on Frostbite, the PC version of the game bringing VR support on PC to the engine (following usage on the abovementioned ''Rogue One X-Wing VR Mission'' expansion); on Xbox Series X and S, the game received support for high frame rates and 4K, alongside visual improvements. In February 2021, following the announcement of a
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
version of '' Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville'', Frostbite will run on a Nintendo console for the first time. Prior to the game's production, Switch support was added into the Frostbite engine.


EA Sports titles

: See '' Games using Frostbite'' for a full list. On 14 July 2015, the game engine was introduced to the sports genre of video games, being put to use on ''
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour ''Rory McIlroy PGA Tour'' is a sports video game developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is an entry in the EA Sports ''PGA Tour'' franchise, and was the first series since 1999 not to feature T ...
''. On 27 September 2016, the game engine debuted on the ''
FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
'' video game series, being employed on ''
FIFA 17 ''FIFA 17'' is a football simulation video game developed and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released in September 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. This is the fir ...
''. Only the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions of the game and future installments will run on Frostbite; the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, in addition to the Nintendo Switch version, do not use the engine in favor of
Ignite To ignite is the first step of firelighting. Ignite may also refer to: Music *Ignite (band), a melodic hardcore band from Orange County, California * ''Ignite'' (Econoline Crush album), 2007 * ''Ignite'' (Shihad album), 2010 * "Ignite" (Eir Aoi s ...
, the engine used by the current-generation games until ''FIFA 17'', which also meant the exclusion of ''The Journey'' campaign and new features like the UEFA Champions League mode (introduced in '' FIFA 19'') from those editions. These titles are referred to as "Legacy Editions". '' Madden NFL 18'', the first of its series to be released on Frostbite, was released on 25 August 2017. The
PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...
and
Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, t ...
versions of '' FIFA 21'', released in December 2020, feature graphical enhancements to take advantage of the newer hardware. In 2020, ''FIFA 21'' is one of two Frostbite games (the other being ''Star Wars: Squadrons'') to receive major enhancements for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. The 2021 installment of the ''
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
'' series, ''
NHL 22 ''NHL 22'' is an ice hockey simulation video game developed by EA Vancouver and published by EA Sports. It is the 31st installment in the ''NHL'' video game series and was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/ ...
'', and future installments afterward, runs on Frostbite (compared to the
Ignite To ignite is the first step of firelighting. Ignite may also refer to: Music *Ignite (band), a melodic hardcore band from Orange County, California * ''Ignite'' (Econoline Crush album), 2007 * ''Ignite'' (Shihad album), 2010 * "Ignite" (Eir Aoi s ...
engine used in previous installments), bringing it to that series for the first time. In 2022, ''
Madden NFL 23 ''Madden NFL 23'' is a 2022 American football video game developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts. Based on the National Football League (NFL), it is the thirty-fourth installment in the ''Madden NFL'' series of video games, follow ...
'' was released utilizing Frostbite 3, and introduced a new physics-based interaction system called FieldSense.


Future

'' Battlefield 2042'' was released in November 2021 using a new version of the Frostbite engine. As ''Battlefield 2042'' was initially developed on an older version of Frostbite, the developers had to update the engine in order to run the game. This new version of Frostbite took 18 months of development time. In October 2022, ''
Need for Speed Unbound ''Need for Speed Unbound'' (stylised as ''NFS Unbound'') is a 2022 racing video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is the twenty-fifth instalment in the ''Need for Speed'' series, the first for Criterion since ...
'' was announced to be using the Frostbite engine; this marks developer Criterion Games' first game using the engine. The game would be released utilizing the ''Battlefield 2042'' iteration of Frostbite. In the same month, studio head of Ridgeline Games, Marcus Lehto, confirmed that the next installment of the ''Battlefield'' franchise will be developed on an upgraded version of Frostbite. The 2023 remake of ''
Dead Space ''Dead Space'' is a science fiction/horror fiction, horror media franchise created by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, developed by Visceral Games, and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise's chronology is not presented in a lin ...
'' will also utilize Frostbite. Following ''FIFA 21''s successor, '' FIFA 22'', not receiving the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series-exclusive enhancements on PC versions, 2022's '' FIFA 23'' brings the features to that platform for the first time and upgrades the engine version to the one used in ''Battlefield 2042''.


Frostbite Labs

In May 2016, EA announced it had formed Frostbite Labs, a dedicated research division focusing on the development of the Frostbite engine as well as its use in future technological innovations such as VR experiences, neural networks and machine learning. Frostbite Labs is composed of a team of 30–40 developers operating in two offices, one in
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
and the other in Vancouver, Canada.


Criticism

Frostbite is notorious for having well-publicized difficulties, including its complexity. This led to numerous reports of development issues surrounding Frostbite titles; a majority of these issues came with the engine's usage at BioWare, which has criticized the engine for its aforemenioned complexity, which made adapting common elements found in
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
s to the engine rather difficult. With EA pushing for the usage of Frostbite 3 in many of their developers' titles, refacilitating the engine for BioWare's 2014 title, '' Dragon Age: Inquisition'', proved difficult for the developer; the title's executive producer, Mark Darrah, said about the engine that "...at launch we still didn’t actually have all our tools working. We had our tools working enough." Prior to moving to Frostbite, the ''Dragon Age'' series utilized the
Eclipse Engine BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zes ...
. The move to Frostbite 3 resulted in BioWare cancelling a piece of downloadable content for '' Dragon Age II''; that game received a divided audience reception, with BioWare aiming to improve on the next ''Dragon Age'' game. Adding new features to the engine for use in ''Inquisition'' proved difficult, as the engine was primarily used in first-person video games. However, issues initially faced by the development team were solved as BioWare and DICE started to cooperate better, and the engine allowed the ''Inquisition'' art team to develop extensive worlds in a short time. However, with the release scheduled for late 2014, the team resorted to extensive crunching. With
Visceral Games Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is known for the ''Dead Space'' series. History EA Redwood Shores (1998–2009) In 1998, Electronic Arts (EA) moved fr ...
being tapped to publish the ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' title ''
Project Ragtag ''Project Ragtag'' was a codename for an untitled third-person action-adventure video game set within the '' Star Wars'' universe. It had been under development by Visceral Games since around 2013 and set to be published by Electronic Arts befor ...
'', the company was occupied with the development of ''
Battlefield Hardline ''Battlefield Hardline'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in March 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Unlike the prev ...
''; after the latter game was released, ''Ragtag''s development suffered from many setbacks, one of them being the usage of Frostbite and their difficulties adapting it to third-person shooters. By 2017, ''Ragtag'' was ultimately cancelled and Visceral shuttered, with resources being shifted over to the then-impending development of DICE's ''Star Wars Battlefront II''. In 2017, '' Mass Effect: Andromeda'' suffered from multiple issues at launch due in part to the complexities of Frostbite and a troubled development. BioWare had previously faced these issues before during the aforementioned development of ''Dragon Age: Inquisition'' and would continue to do so during development of ''Andromeda''. In 2019, sources within BioWare claimed that Frostbite's complexity had also contributed to difficulties surrounding ''
Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
''s development. Former BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn acknowledged these issues in an interview in November 2019. Due to being developed in 15–18 months, developers of ''Battlefield 2042'' from DICE had issues with Frostbite. In June 2021, tools used in the development of Frostbite, a majority of them regarding development of ''FIFA 21'' including its source code, were leaked; the contents were released on August 2, 2021.


Games using Frostbite


Notes

# Excludes PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (up to 2018's ''FIFA 19'') and Nintendo Switch "Legacy" editions.


References


External links


Frostbite's Official Homepage

Frostbite Rendering Architecture

DICE Publications

DICE's Official Homepage
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