Frostbite 2 Will Help EA Keep Costs Down for Next-Generation Consoles

Blake Jorgensen, the chief financial officer at publisher Electronic Arts, says that his company will have a smooth transition to the next generation of home consoles and lower costs because of power of the proprietary Frostbite 2 engine.

The executive spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, quoted by VG247, and said that EA would not make the same mistakes as during the previous console transition.

He stated, “Historical transitions have been bumpy for a few reasons: one, because a lot of the companies had too many titles. We had way too many titles in the last transition, and the more titles you have, the more expensive it is to convert from one generation to the next. We are much more focused now.”

Apparently, Electronic Arts is focusing on a core of ten to fifteen video games, which will enter a research and development process for less than 100 million dollars (78 million Euro).

The costs will be spread from 2013 to 2015 and it might vary based on the exact costs associated with the new devices from Sony and Microsoft.

Blake Jorgensen added, “We have always been moving Battlefield well ahead on specs because of the PC embedded base business. So moving from gen-three to a gen-four is not a huge rise in costs, and since we’ve been building those types of titles on Frostbite, which is our proprietary engine, once you’ve done that, you now can do it for multiple titles as long as they use the Frostbite engine.”

Rumors that DICE is already working on Battlefield 4 using Frostbite 2 first appeared late during 2012.

Sony is widely expected to reveal the PlayStation 4 during an event that will take place in New York on February 20.

Microsoft is also expected to have an official announcement for the Xbox 720 soon after.