Games aren’t all about the numbers. Individual communities that associate with one console over the other might take pride in hearing that the PS4 version of a multiplatform game is running at 1080p, or that Battlefield has better textures on the Xbox One – but really, the numbers don’t always tell the full story. EA Canada's creative director Brian Hayes, who’s currently deep into development of EA’s first UFC game, chose to go with a fighting game that runs at 30 frames-per-second over the often ideal 60 FPS, arguing that the difference in gameplay wasn’t significant enough to worry about.
"UFC is running at 1080p," he told Gaming Bolt in an interview. "The game sim is running at 60 FPS, but rendering at 30 FPS with motion blur.
"From prior experience working on Fight Night Round 4 and Fight Night Champion, which rendered at 60 FPS and 30 FPS respectively, we discovered that 60 FPS didn't have a hugely beneficial impact on gameplay, but motion blur had an enormous impact on visual quality.”
A little bit of blur can go a long way, and surprisingly, most people who got their hands on the in-development project saw the value of this visual effect over the 60 FPS.
"In fact, when we focus tested the two, the majority of people preferred the 30 FPS experience with motion blur,” he continued. “So, as opposed to arbitrarily jumping back to 60 FPS for little discernible benefit, we decided to put those resources towards improving the visual presentation of the game in other ways."
Look to take a swing at EA Sports UFC on next-gen consoles in May 2014.
