The EA Sports Ignite
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 softwar ...
(styled as EA SPORTS IGNITE) is a collection of video game technologies built by
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted th ...
and designed to make video game sports "alive".
The technology was announced at Microsoft's
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
reveal event in May 2013 for three
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...
franchise games for Xbox One and
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 ...
: ''
FIFA 14
''FIFA 14'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. It was released in September 2013 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStati ...
'', ''
Madden NFL 25'' and ''
NBA Live 14'', all released in Fall 2013.
Capabilities
Electronic Arts announced several features within the engine. Its Human Intelligence framework lets in-game players "think like real athletes", with the ability to make snap judgments, prepare for impact, and perform as a team player.
For example, the new
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
creates a sense of urgency for computer players towards the end of an association football match to rush for more
shots on goal.
The True Player Motion framework makes players' bodies, limbs, and clothing each move according to physics.
The Living Worlds framework models the stadium audience members and their behaviors individually.
The audience will have expectations about the in-game sports matches, and will react accordingly to the match's progress.
The Ignite artificial intelligence is able to use the next-gen hardware to handle four times as many calculations per second than older EA Sports titles.
Animation detail is expected to improve "ten-fold".
Electronic Arts plans to use Ignite for future sports games and
Frostbite
Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when exposed to extreme low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occurs in the ha ...
for future action games (with the exception of ''
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 ...
'', which also uses Frostbite, and current iterations of the ''Madden NFL'', ''FIFA'' and ''NHL'' series, which use Frostbite instead of Ignite).
The company had previously shared technology internally before moving to develop all future sports games on the same engine.
History
Ignite was publicly announced at Microsoft's May 2013
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
reveal event.
Four upcoming
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...
franchise games for
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
and
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 ...
were announced to be using the technology: ''
FIFA 14
''FIFA 14'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. It was released in September 2013 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStati ...
'', ''
EA Sports UFC'', ''
Madden NFL 25'', and ''
NBA Live 14''.
Electronic Arts showed pre-rendered sequences of the games at the reveal event instead of real-time gameplay.
Games using the Ignite engine
References
{{Video game engines
2013 software
Electronic Arts
Video game engines