EA Sports Will Reveal New Engine and Make Game Announcements at E3

A few other noteworthy pieces of news came out of this week’s EA investor call which already provided word on the extension to the FIFA license, the numbers behind the record-breaking FIFA 13 along with the company’s future release schedule, and that UFC won’t release this fiscal year. This information relates to plans for next month’s E3.  

EA Sports is set to debut a brand new next-gen engine at or shortly before the press conference on June 10. No indication was made as to what the engine would entail or what franchises it would apply to. This could be any number of things such as a shared animation or physics engine or putting the new graphics engine on full display. Certainly the presentation will be heavy on the technical advancements that will accompany the new hardware. The focus at the E3 events heading into the Xbox 360 and PS3 was on aspects including graphics (the infamous Madden next-gen trailer), procedural awareness, and foot planting.

I also want to call out a big accomplishment by the teams that built the development engines for our next generation of games — Frostbite3 engineered at DICE, and a brand new engine from EA SPORTS. These world class tech stacks are powering all of our development on the new systems. They provide an enduring common technology that saves cost, fosters efficiency, and provides spectacular physics and graphics for our games. This isn’t a vision – these engines are fully functional right now and powering the games you’ll see at E3 in June. You’ll hear more about Frostbite3 and our new sports engine at our E3 Investor Breakfast in June.

NBA Live 14 is still in the pipeline and comments made suggest that it may be coming to next-gen though it was not definitively stated. That would arguably be the best route for the company to take long term as it provides a fresh start and more even playing field against the competition – but in the short term it constrains potential sales given the small user base that will be present in the first few months of the console launches.

A full reveal at E3 including more next generation titles in development,” for the coming year. “This will include breakthroughs in graphics and gameplay for some of our biggest franchises including Battlefield, FIFA, Madden, NBA Live, and Need for Speed.”

It was also made explicitly clear that there will be an announcement of at least one new EA Sports game at E3. That could be the time to reveal the return of MVP Baseball (someone has to be doing MLB for Microsoft right?), NCAA Basketball (a total long shot though EA was investigating doing so last year), or something completely unexpected. The timing wouldn’t seem ideal to debut info on an MLS series or off-shoot NBA game. Though the inclination is to assume it’ll be something currently unknown it is also possible that debuting a trailer or first big news on UFC or talking about next spring’s World Cup game could qualify in the company’s mind as the unveiling of a new title.

We plan to unveil new titles from EA SPORTS, Bioware, and DICE and a first look at some brand new games.”

EA did not discuss at all rumors of some form of exclusivity to Microsoft that could be announced on May 21. NCAA Football 14, Madden NFL 25, NHL 14, and FIFA 14 are confirmed to be present at E3. Others such as NBA Live 14, UFC, and any new titles announced at the press conference are more likely to have news relating to them isolated there rather than be found on the show floor or in back room presentations.