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In the recent months Ubisoft and some other video game developers have received a lot of criticism for decisions to lock their games at 30 frames per second on all platforms. During a recent question and answer session with students in a college a game architect from Ubisoft implied that the company locks its games at 30fps because developers of game consoles force it to do so.
Disclaimer: Bare in mind that we can't confirm the legitimacy of the information in this Reddit thread. This is all very subjective information and should be treated as rumor rather than fact. Take everything you read with a pinch of salt.
On Tuesday an engineering team consisting of a game architect, an online programmer and a human resource specialist visited a school to explain their work to students. During the question and answer session one of the students asked the specialists numerous questions and posted answers to reddit. Some of the responses were somewhat different from the answers given earlier by some other employees of Ubisoft.
For high-end action games like Assassin’s Creed game developers have to “choose between graphical fidelity and smoothness”, according to the game architect. Given that the new-generation video game consoles have relatively limited performance, game developers have to balance resolution, visual effects, fps and other things. As a consequence, some games are rendered in limited resolutions, other titles are locked at 30fps. Given that game consoles have always had limited resources, compromises for them are natural things.
What is surprising is that, according to the architect, platform holders like Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. ask game designers to lock fps on PC versions of games, essentially eliminating one of the key advantages that PCs have over consoles: considerably higher performance.
Ubisoft yet has to confirm the information that it had been asked by platform holders to lock fps on all platforms, however, if the information is correct and the practice will continue, we will likely see loads of video games with locked fps in the coming years. This will naturally harm the market of PC hardware in general. If there is no difference between high-end and mainstream AMD Radeon or Nvidia GeForce graphics cards, it makes no sense for the end-user to get a better graphics adapter or a better microprocessor.
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KitGuru Says: It is pretty clear that while both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are considerably more powerful than their predecessors, they are not as powerful as modern mainstream personal computers. Eliminating one of the main advantages that the PCs have over consoles naturally make the latter look slightly better and keep many gamers on these platforms. However, it does not seem too ethical to leave PC gamers without experience they can have just to keep Microsoft and Sony happy…
Haha I hope this gets confirmed so that we can all shit on Microsoft and Sony, raining down a shit storm worse than the always online crap that made Microsoft have to change the Xbox One.
If it’s locked at 30 I’m not buying it and I hope no one else does.
Ditto I agree I’m not buying a game which is locked to 30fps I played a game like that nfs the rivals is an example n it lagged all the time n my specs are amazing!!
why dont the makers of games tell these big companies it is a free market ,if you dont like the free market then the government should intervene and explain it to them as they get taxes of 10 pound per game sold
if they lock games on 30fps also for pc, the market will go down for hardware, i guess intel ,AMD and nVidia will do something against, cuz that would be a hard financial hit for these companies, or the last hit would be, that sony and microsoft would have to produce their OWN microprocessors for their next consoles, cuz i guess intel, AMD and nVidia would reject from producing chips for their next consoles when the companies do something like that to get more consoles sold cause the difference between PC and console wouldn’t be that big anymore… and there would be no high end system anymore in the future (exept for the ones with very big wallets) … so i can just hope that the companies will refuse to lock the games at 30fps … or many ppl will crack their games to unlock higher fps’es and many ppl will get the cracked game… the companies will have the choice: lock FPS to 30 on their games and don’t sell many of the copies or leave it as it is and keep earning money with them.
I don’t believe this. It sounds more like Ubisoft trying to cover its own ass.
You would imagine the simple response from AMD/nVidia etc would be to provide their own work around to the fps locks.
Problem is that AMD,
Nvidia and Intel doesn’t matter to hum they sell their processors.
Microsoft and Sony would put their noses where they don’t belong, so it’s not too hard to believe. Still, this isn’t much of an article as it’s pretty much all speculation.
Its game code related. People that played in ”The Crew” PC closed Beta reported than when the 30fps lock was removed by a console command the audio and some animations were acting funny. Now that Ubisoft confirmed 60fps for PC they also delayed the launch for 2nd of December to fix it accordingly cause apparently they need to recode some modules.
They want to lock it at 30 fps? I’ll F**k*ng lock their ass in 30 fps. What the hell are they thinking!?
Sony and Microsoft cry to game developers to lock frame rate for pc because they can’t make good enough hardware.
Then I say we as PC gamers boycott all Ubisoft: Microsoft and Sony products of any type for the years to come. PC gamers lets hit them in the pocketbook and let them know we will not buy their products if they are capped or if console companies support this practice. It is not our fault as PC gamers that consoles are junk.
They can f**k right off, why should we limit our games we’ve paid good money for because of the older technology in consoles.
Hell no!
Sound to me like they’re just trying to kill off PC gaming so they can just write their games for the large thumbed morons on consoles.
Haha, shitty consoles now restricting PC game performance, what a joke. It’s like telling Usain Bolt he has to slow down so he’s the same speed as the other sprinters.
When you make it with 30 fps in mind, that’s what you get. Not to speak how stupid a 30fps lock sounds… Yaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr for the upcoming releases
What most people fail to realize is that this is mostly the IBM and Microsoft’s fault. After Sony did the R&D for the Cell Processor, the IBM pretty much handed that knowledge to Microsoft. Meaning that Sony invested billions of Yen only to help the competition (and, not surprisingly, they vowed never to do so again). The end result is neither company wanting to push the boundaries of console technology and just settling for the cheapest PC components…
So good job IBM! Your favoritism for American companies just stagnated the industry and screwed over everyone.
So what’s the point spending 3k on a decent system when the performance you get is console?
This probably the reason most game developers are making games for the PC and Tablet market. http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/anton-shilov/only-4-per-cent-of-game-developers-plan-to-create-titles-wii-u/
Probably official fps unlockers header our way by Nvidia and AMD
I doubt AMD (who provides the Consoles hardware) and Nvidia( Who list most of Ubisoft’s games as a gamesworks title will allow this as it will harm sales of their respective flagship GPU’s.AMD could simply refuse to provide further components for the consoles and Nvidia would likely inform Ubisoft that further use of their Gameworks tech which helps the visuals alot will no longer be permitted.
In hindsight though its likely just another lame Ubiscuse because they’re too afraid to say the truth about how worthless and archaic the consoles are.
It’s always Ubisoft, again and again. Totally retarded and completely ludicrous.
Never it’s Ubisoft fault, everybody has done it except Ubisoft.
I will never buy a Ubisoft game again, they are against PC-gaming.
RIP Ubisoft, PC Master Race!
Piece out.
Mmmmm This is surely illegal. A cartel.
I don’t know why, but when i play a game locked at 30 fps on a console, it seems smooth. On PC 30 fps seems choppy. I tried adding motion blur and playing on PC with XBOX 360 controller, but still, 30 fps seems much smoother on a console.
Peace*
bycott ubisoft games ploxerino!!
Meh…. don’t buy many mainstream titles anyway. Whilst I think this is a pathetic descision, it could serve to make the indie scene have another surge, which is good news considering how much better indepant sudios games have been compared to AAA titles in the last couple of years.
I hope I’ll die before I see the “Nvidia: The Way It’s Meant to be Played” on a 30 fps locked game.
I preordered Notre Dame edition. What fool I am….
I expect Modders won’t allow this to be a limitation for very long. XD
they’ll be a framerate unlock mod rather quickly i hope.
It does seem like a rather dirty marketing move if it is indeed an accurate claim.
We’ll just have to see what happens and hold developers accountable to their target demo’s interests.
IBM owned it and could do whatever the hell they wanted with it. I also highly doubt that Sony would be willing to spend almost a grand in hardware to sell it at $400 with how poorly this gen has actually sold.
It wouldn’t hurt AMD much as they making chips for both consoles for the next 7+ years. Should be able to override it with Vsync providing your gpu is good enough anyway. If not well this is a PC where talking about here when there’s a will there’s away. Don’t know what all the fuss is about really cause where still gonna have higher resolutions and higher textures.
Well time to uninstall Windows
Well time to uninstall Windows
I don’t sympathise with Ubi here. Initially when I saw this on reddit a few days ago I thought that it must suck for them to be getting the bad PR when it’s clearly the fault of MS and Sony (as we all knew). It took me a day or two to realise that it was still a choice – Ubi are still choosing to lie to their fanbase about the real reasons for this. If it’s a non-disclosure agreement then they still chose to agree to that, and they have to suffer the repercussions.
Or we could just pirate games that have these locks. Sony and MS lose business if it becomes apparent to all of the devs that their policies are causing loss of profits. MS, it should always be remembered, is essentially a bundle of different companies under the same name, so not buying Windows isn’t going to hurt Xbox.
Note to the NSA/GCHQ: ‘could’ is not condoning 😛
ha ha so you gonna play on Linux then?
There is no other reason to be limiting to 30FPS. No one in the industry could possibly believe the PR statements they spout – seriously, no one could believe them. It’s always been obvious this was due to MS/Sony pressure, and it’s likely there’s a non-disclosure agreement here somewhere, so these guys are likely to get in some serious trouble.
It’s mostly sold poorly *because* the tech is bad though. This is the first gen of consoles in a while that aren’t loss leaders – if they were, they would get higher sales. Basic economics.
There have been some great AAA games in the past few years – just as there have been many bad indie ones. You’re cutting off your nose to spite your face if you restrict yourself to the indy scene; it’s the same as being a music snob. Personally, I really enjoyed the Metros, GTA, SRIV, and a bunch of others – I’m currently really having fun with Shadow of Mordor.
There are reasons in dev terms, but probably the biggest practical reason is you’re using a TV for a console rather than a monitor, and the latter while significantly better is also more sensitive.
Steam OS when its release
you do know that is based on Linux.
I have been meaning to learn Linux anyway.
Thinking I will have to learn it as I stated above.
I have never pirated anything at all and I don’t intend to start now.
I can see your point and think you are right there, I should re-think my statement. To be honest I mostly wrote out of anger toward the larger companies taking a crap on the consumer (not the developers themselves, but the money men controlling cash flow toward them). I wouldn’t want to restrict myself to the indie scene (especially if it meant spiting myself by missing out on the mighty Metro) but at the same time, I would do it if making that change transmitted a message to corporations that this isn’t the desicion they should make (but it wouldn’t unless I started some sort of movement and..who has the time? :P) So yes I think you make a good point, however personal preference leads me to feel that I would rather lose the thread of AAA gaming trends rather than the impressive indie innovations, especially as this limitation would mean more funding would be diverted to them as a consequence of this descision.
This. Basically. I’ll not buy a game that is purposely downgraded, and made worse, just so it doesn’t make the new consoles look like a load of crap.
No… GOD! please NO!! 30fps is sickening for games, why limit people who pay for their games on the leading platform…. why?
I played Destiny at my friends house and it was Jittering all over the place, looked like 24fps to me and I couldnt play it, i passed the controller back to him like 5 seconds later.
I let him play Shadow of Mordor on my PC and he was amazed by the quality and smoothness. I then cranked the Super sampling resolution scale to 200% so I can show him 30fps vs 60fps, and he preferred the 1080p Ultra 60fps+ compared to 30fps he said it was more fluid and felt like I was apart of the game. Yet Ubisoft thinks 30fps is more cinematic?
GET THE F*CK OUT UBISOFT!
Reasons to limit to 30fps:
– Easier to code game to run physics, calculations and timings at 30fps (see: Dark Souls 1, NFS Rivals, etc) instead of having to make the game able to calculate it all properly regardless of FPS.
– Able to push out better graphical quality, because it is more difficult to run a game at 720p 60fps than it is to run it at 1080p 30fps. Resolution is the easier number to increase here =D.
– Allows minimal work after porting from consoles to PC when coding due to above reasons; allowing almost a bare port. More “profit” so to speak. Expanding off the 1st point, keeping a as-is type of port is easy as you don’t need to plan for above 30fps with regards to physics etc allows for a simple disclaimer add-in about it.
– Allows more parity of weak current-gen consoles to exceedingly stronger PCs. Set the consoles to “high” and allow PC to use “ultra”, but make “ultra” super hard for PCs to run, or stuttery (see: Watch Dogs, where a user modded in the “ultra” textures to activate when selecting “high”, and it got rid of large amounts of the stuttering).
– Then, users with their new yet weak consoles don’t feel so far off from the PC crowd, console sales keep high, people don’t see much extra benefit with PC so people don’t jump ship so easily, console sales keep high, where they don’t need to put as much work into games (fov sliders, various graphics & AA options, optimizing for various hardware, support for multiple types of input devices, multiple resolutions and refresh rates, etc).
There are MANY reasons why devs like throwing 30fps ports to PC.
If it’s true, I’d expect the EU to throw the book at them. It wouldn’t take much to argue that it’s anti competitive behaviour rather than a choice the developers have made for artistic or optimisation reasons.
Learn? What a butt joke…
1. Download and save any “GNU/Linux” on a USB or DVD. Can be Mint or Manjaro with any Desktop Environment (there is no such thing as Linux)
2. Boot from the device and install. It’s like install anything else, easier is impossible
3. After first startup let the system update and install the proprietary drivers for your GPU (only hope your MB and GPU are fullt supported)
4. Never use the web browser to install anything, always use a package manager like Synaptic, Pamac, Ubuntu/Mint Software Center and install all you need from there.
5. Need something that you can’t find through the package manager? Add a new PPA to your system or google for a pre compiled or the source code version of anything. Cmake and gcc are always at your disposal.
Have fun cracking your head if you have problems with pipelines, pulseaudio or broken packages if you screw up. (GNU/Linux user since 2012
Sony and Microsoft should be forced to pay a fine for each and every game they have forced to lock @ 30fps on PC, as should each and every developer who has complied to the demands. This type of anticompetitive practices should not be left to continue. Its restricting the growth of the PC market and complete advancement of our technology globally with no need to upgrade to anything above the 6 year old out of date tech we call “Next Gen”
As I said many times XBOX and Playstation are cancer for GAMING industry. Fuck MS, fuck Sony.
Bare in mind?
What AC isnt capped at 30 FPS, didnt they say they were working on it to uncap it for the PC port? or is that another PC game? oooh maybe it’s the crew :O
However not all games are supported on Linux
One of my best friends is a dev, so I know a thing or two here.
#1. Completely untrue. Design decision, and doesn’t make anything easier. It makes things hard to change later, once the decision is made though.
#2. True, but doesn’t justify a lock specifically, only variable graphics (which every game has).
#3. Also untrue. An FPS lock does not make it easier to port in any way.
#4. I couldn’t really understand what you were saying here. If you’re saying what I think you are then it’s also a non sequitur. It’s also not an actual advantage to the dev, only for MS/Sony. It’s surprising that you think a console could run ‘high’ on any modern game, too.
#5. Again, no real benefit to the dev. It’s easier and cheaper in many ways to develop for the PC which plays off against the benefits of developing for console (more day one sales, etc). On the PC the devs get much more of a cut for instance – while they are fleeced by MS/Sony even now they don’t charge for patches. Given that there are now only two major card and CPU manufacturers, and they do a lot of the work nowadays, while other HW is quite standardised, it’s pretty easy. Bear in mind for the XB1 they have to play around with the esram, and even on the ps4 they have to deal with the shared ram.
I am sure that there are enough that are to keep me entertained. Good Point though.
Define Butt Joke? When you have severe ADD/ADHD things that are simple to learn for most can be very difficult. Have had a hard time learning things most of my life, there are those few things that I just seem to have a knack for, hope this will be one of them.
Locked at 30fps because it’s hurting their consoles which cant even handle 720p at 30fps!
Not to worry as Steam boxes/Intel NUC’s/Gigabyte Brix’s will soon surpass console performance and end up under everyone’s tv instead’of some shitty restricted console.
Long live the pc!
i think you CAN cancel the pre-order…
but that’s none of my business
If your dev friends are telling you that coding for PC is easier than coding for locked-down hardware, then they’re just lying bro XD. The fact is however that coding for PC and then porting to consoles is FAR easier than coding for consoles then porting a GOOD port to PC.
As for your deal about raising resolution versus raising FPS, I am dead certainly telling you that it takes more power to double FPS than it does to double resolution. In fact, it can take more than double the power to double FPS. And this is showcased here in the video from linus Tech Tips about Watch Dogs on a 480. Look how easily 1080p 30fps was to achieve versus 792p 60fps! http://youtu.be/tYG-7T2LVDc?t=2m20s
Next, I explained that tying physics, time, AI calculations, etc to a FPS lock is easy to code. If you’re going to lock FPS anyway, then this has no bearing on the person playing it. For a console, nobody is going to unlock FPS. They can’t. For a PC, if people DO unlock FPS, they can get SERIOUS problems. SERIOUSSSSS PROBLEMSSSS. Try playing Skyrim at 120fps. I’ve seen animals bounce themselves skyward just because the engine is broke due to being above 60, because it’s not meant to calculate anything while running above 60fps.
About the #4 point, I was trying to say if they just throw 30fps etc on for all versions of the game ever, they can go further with the whole parity deal. They skimped on Watch Dogs’ graphics for PC badly. They did it for Far Cry 3 as well; Assassin’s Creed 4 also has it; it WILL NOT RUN at 120Hz unless you play at 720p. If you go above that resolution your highest lock is 60Hz. The same thing happened with Assassin’s Creed 3. The Division has already had leaks about having PC gimped to more closely match consoles. Basically, the objective here is to make console users feel like only $3000 PCs can play the same games they can at SLIGHTLY better graphics, and it works. I’m not saying the current consoles could say… run Crysis 3 on high. But if you build a game’s “high” spec to run on current-gen consoles and make “ultra” only slightly better looking with a HUGE performance hit, then you’ve done the job well. Consoles remain more prevalent (which is difficult with all the backlash they’ve been getting these days) and console sales FAR outnumber PC sales even though PC sales are much more profitable. But console sales need less work put into them, which brings it back to the whole point of making more money.
As for the part about MS and Sony no longer charging for patches… I will have to get back to you on that. I honestly don’t know if they stopped doing that, and I won’t say something I am not at least 95% sure is correct.
If its not easier just work a bit harder. Make the game cooler. Lazy Arses. Some people actually feel accomplishment from quality work.
DON’T PREORDER GAMES. Hammer that into your bloody skull.
Herein lies the problem. Extra work means extra money, with no extra returns (that can be proven) for the money. In fact, it’s easily argued that the better the game the better it sells, so they put their constrained time and money into the game over optimizing/best experience/etc. Publishers usually demand this, but some dev teams just don’t feel like bothering either.
Problem is… There really arent that many for Linux. I was looking at my game library the other day. 20 some games installed on this machine, a lot of them AAA titles… Only 3 games natively support Linux. The rest you’d have to take your chances with WINE.
Theres only so much you can do. Play around with the settings in the NVIDIA panel, try and make a game do things its not written with the intent of doing. You will start breaking things really quickly if you aren’t careful. The requirements for the GPU to take over processes like vSync and FPS would be painful because you are forcing software to run in ways it wasn’t meant to. Its like running an emulator on the PC. Sure, I can play Nintendo Wii games on my PC. My PC’s hardware is far superior to the Wii… Yet Dolphin runs like trash 75% of the time. Its trying to play a game in a way it wasn’t meant to be played, taking extra resources to pull it off.
The reasons are two fold. You generally dont sit a foot away from your TV. I personally am a good 7 or 8 feet away from my television when I am playing a console game or watching TV. With PCs, you are very very close to the screen, which makes minor flaws seem more apparent. 1080p from 1 foot away looks a lot crisper and more detailed than 1080p at 10 feet away.
The second reason, as stated by James, is the device itself. Monitors are generally very high grade screens. They are required to have faster refresh rates, nearly instant response times (A TV’s response time is often significant, far more than the 5 ms industrial average on a monitor [or the 2 ms response time you’ll see on your higher end models]), their pixels have to be more ruggedly built because a single malfunctioning pixel sticks out like a sore thumb on a monitor while on a TV most of the time you wont even notice it…. Monitors just have to go through so many more rugged construction checks. This higher grade construction means that you see the image almost exactly as the GPU created when it sent it up the HDMI cable. Minor flaws suddenly become much more apparent.
30 FPS is slower than your eyes’ “refresh rate” so to speak.This means your eyes, if they are close enough to see small details, will notice when a frame has stuck around for too long. From a distance, your eyes can’t really tell that the frames aren’t always in motion.
This is disgusting. Why would they even do that? According to the comments on this article people who would have bought this game on PC were… um… going to buy it on PC? And if it’s gimped on their system, PC gamers are savvy enough to follow PC gaming news and know why. Aaaaand know that we know why, we boycot because it’s a bullshit reason that blatantly gives us the old “fuck you.”
So what the hell does it matter? We would have bought game X before, but now that it’s gimped, we won’t to protest the gimping. So in the end they’re only hurting themselves. I know for damn certain I’m not going to go buy an Xbox One or PS4 game because they gimped my PC version down to peasant levels.
But why not? I’ve been seeing this anti-preorder rebellion lately and I can’t for the life of me understand why I shouldn’t. I mean I’ve got over half a dozen games preordered right now and it’s great. I know they’ll be there for me when they launch and I get to make prepayments of $10 here $10 there until they come out so it’s not one big $65 kick in the teeth when they release. I for one love it. I don’t like supporting GameStop by doing it there, but they don’t make dick on new games anyway so it’s not too big of a deal.
That was the longest sentence I have ever read.
Not that I disagree, you make some good points. But daaaaaaaaamn dude.
Buy the game and then torrent it, I expect modders will have it unlocked in their cracked release. Alternitively you could just torrent it. Do they realy deserve that money?
I see, my apologies. I have ADHD too and OCD so I know how hard it is to you. Im for years treating that by myself with positive results, is some hard work but that is possible to treat.
By butt joke I mean that you don’t need to learn anything new to use something like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Manjaro or any of the easy ones to use (don’t try in go near Arch, Slackware or Gentoo… You don’t know the mess you will put yourself into).
After you install your desired system (something that doesn’t take more than 5 steps), you just use it like if you use Windows.The difference is that GNU/Linux based systems you usually have a thing called Package Manager that manage all your applications, let you install using a software center (like Appstore on Mac, iOS or Android) and update all at once without ever need to browse from website to website to the applications you need.
Other big difference is that you wont have the same apps like sony vegas, cinema 4D, adobe or corel applications nor anything you are used to see on Windows. Instead you have a range of thousands of free and open source apps that you can use, some being bad and others inside the professional level.
You can also browse for apps on the internet but I wont recommend because you will have to install them from the command line.
Just because Ubisoft “demands” it doesn’t mean they’re going to do it… Calm down. Ubisoft isn’t powerful enough to influence a decision like that. If they want THEIR games to be at 30fps, then whatever, as I don’t play Ubisoft games so I don’t care.
“but they don’t make dick on new games anyway so it’s not too big of a deal.”
Actually believe it or not gamestop makes about double that of the developers for each new game sale.
Console manufacturer makes about $7, insurance and copyright another $10, developers $7, disc printing about $2, other fees around $15 for a total of around $41 gamestop takes the rest as there profits. This is why a lot of games on steam only cost around $45-$50 on initial release because it’s not ran through the hands of gamestop.
You can just as easily drop $10 here and $10 there into a jar to save up for the game, and it doesn’t even require having to drive repeatedly back and forth between gamestop.
The main reason why everyone as not to pre-order is because for the past year or so a lot of games have come out with game greasing bugs/glitches, didn’t include what was promised in the game, or was overhyped with money thrown at it from all directions only to come out and get like 4/10 ratings by the users while paid for you tubers and reviewers gave the game 9/10 or 10/10 reviews.
If a game is expected to be such a great game you can bet your ass your gamestop will have a copy available in Stock without the need of a pre-order.
Back when I use to play call of Duty (shudders) I use to go into gamestop the following morning after a major release night and they always had a nice huge stack of copies sitting there ready to sell.
You also pay more for a pre-order for stupid shit like a poster/tshirt/gun dlc/etc that you will end up paying more for by pre-ordering than just buying it outright the normal way.
I’m with another member here, torrent the game check it out for an hour if you enjoy the game buy it if not then no money lost. Why pay $65 for a game to play it for 30 minutes and find out you hate the game, walk into gamestop the same day to trade it in for half the price you paid for 45 minutes ago.
Gamestop has a depreciation on games higher than the depreciation of buying and pulling a lambo off a dealers lot then trying to return it.
I’d like to see a source on your breakdown for who earns what on the sale of new games. I used to manage a GameStop and new game sales were most certainly not a priority unless it was for a new release. Of course they make an ungodly amount of money on used game sales, but it was explained to me consistently how little the company actually made on new games sales. Publishers and rights holders get most of the dough.
A game like CoD will always have a huge amount of copies at a GameStop upon release regardless of pre-order numbers. But a game like Fantasy Life, Bayonetta 2, or Watchdogs for Wii U will have next to no copies in stock day one unless people pre-order. If nobody reserves say Fantasy Life at a store, with a game like that you’d be lucky if more than two or three copies showed up in your distro for launch. Sometimes a game would release and if there were no pre-orders at our location the game wouldn’t even show up.
Honestly, that’s not a reason for me not to pre-order. I’m a wave one gamer meaning I’ll always run out and buy the newest game for my system because I can’t wait to play it. I’ve been burned in the past by buggy games or downright overrated titles that turned out to be crap but the number of times I’ve been satisfied and enjoyed my purchase far outweighs the bad experiences I’ve had. I like to think I’ve learned enough as a gamer that I can judge whether something will be worth a purchase or not day one. Let’s call it intuition.
As for saving up; I’m horrible at it. It’s much easier for me to drive to GameStop (which is less than 5 minutes down the road from my house) to add money to a pre-order. That way the money is gone, tied up, out of my hands, and I’m not tempted to spend it on something else.
You don’t pay more for pre-order bonuses;) They’re always free. The “$5” you put down and anything else comes off the total price of the game. Any posters, t-shirts, or other swag cost nothing. It’s a small bribe to get people into the store in order to encourage the reservation practice. Games are cheaper on PC because there’s hardly any logistics involved. No packaging, no shipping, no charge for shelf space, natta. It’s just server traffic. Publishers still get there share, Steam (the distributor here instead of GameStop) still takes there cut just as a sale from a brick and mortar place would.
I’ll wait for any sort of confirmation before passing judgement on this. 😛
Totally agree, i did not pick to game on PC to get games that are limited to 30FPS because the supposed “next gen” consoles can’t even manage what they hyped up to do.
This would not surprise me in the slightest, they make inferior product, sell it at a comparatively high price for the level of hardware it contains, for instance, you can build a cheap small form factor PC that will run BF4 in medium spec 1080p 40-60 FPS for about £350 which is around the same price as a “next gen” console and about a comparable experience, but i have a computer that is capable of BF4 at 90 FPS in ULTRA settings, i expect to be able to use 90% of games at maximum settings, because i have the hardware to do it. It really pisses me off when they kind of “corporate assholes” buy out “privileges” like when one GPU manufacturer gets a preference (Nvidia with COD GHOSTS) and it breaks the game for those on the other GPU type, which really makes no sense at all considering that the “next gen” consoles actually use AMD hardware.
I want that sexy statue 😀
I just want to support gaming industry, fuck me right?
Gaming as we know it is fucking DEAD. Insatiable and indecent corporate greed is what killed it:
Games are now released at pre alpha stage, as end user are now free beta tester guinea pigs for game developers. It’s usual now to take many months to fix those broken games AFTER their release, all on the back of frustrated gamers. They ask money months in advance to pre oder those unfinished games full of bugs, pretending giving you bonuses like extra characters and weapons, when in fact it is the complete opposite: gamers buying the game when it actually come out are screwed with less characters and weapons…
Full games are now chopped in small chapters where you pay the full price, but only for chapter 1, everything else is a DLC now. The full blown expansion packs that we used to have, and that was actually worthy of our money, is a thing of the past now. Micro transactions is all over the place so a 59.00$ games end up costing 2, 3, 4 or even 5 times that price once you have unlocked everything. They make essential part of the game nearly impossible to finish without buying/unlocking the outrageous amount of DLC, so that “option” is…not an option.
And now, they will impose parity across all platforms to decrease the production cost even further, to increase their revenue even more, by going for the weakest common denominator, which is for now the Xbox one: 900p 30 FPS. Welcome to the reality of the gaming industry of 2014. Imagine when their focus for parity shift to tablet and phone. At this rate, we will regress to 720p, 24 FPS, 16 bit color real soon.
What’s next? Pay by the minute? All games will be “kick started”, so you will pre-pre order, 2-3 years in advance, even before the first line of code is written? Time limited games that cease to function after a specific amount of time? Cloud monthly subscription payment becomes mendatory for all games (always connected to the net)? EVERYTHING in games will become a micro transaction/DLC; each weaspon, each car, each improvement, you must pay for? That’s soooo fucked up man…
EVERYTHING is skewed against the gamers and it’s all in for the game developers that are literally cash milking gamers to death right now. That kind of unbalanced, dictatorial business model of total iniquity can last only for so long before it completely collapse under its own weight. We are on the verge of getting there, just sit and watch.
VOTE WITH YOUR WALLET:
1- Do not buy from developers like Ubisoft who are pushing for parity
2- NEVER pre order a game.
3- In fact, wait at least after 2-3 patches have been released. Buy working games, not broken pre alpha
4- NEVER buy games full of DLC and micro transactions that canot be finished without them
Can’t wait for this rotten gaming industry to catastrophically implode and die. The sooner, the better, as a new consumer centric gaming industry will be able to emerge from the ashes.
you can just go in to program files and just change it….
Submitting my support ticket for a refund asap until they clear this up
One more reason to pirate their games – as if uPlay wasn’t enough. I’ll be picking up my copy of Unity from RELOADED it seems.
Thank you for the reply, very informative.
GoG.com has quite a few as I understand it.
And for every Indie title that supports Linux GoG has, you have twenty AAA titles that run on Windows only, or at the very least, also support Macintosh. The big names in the industry aren’t making any effort to embrace Linux. Only a fraction of the Indie market is trying it.
I won’t be buying it on any platform, you want to ruin the games industry, go right ahead. I refuse to play games with bullies.
Damn straight, i will be illegally downloading.
Just accept it. Consoles can’t do 30fps or more (without sacrificing quality). Leave PC’s alone!
You don’t preorder games because you don’t know if its good or not yet. Devs try to get people to preorder because if the game gets a bad review, then less people will buy it. It is the devs way of getting your money just in case the game is bad. There is no logical reason for doing it because the game will not sell out, period. Pre ordering supports lazy devs….FACT!
If its digital you can’t.
brace yourself…..
*bear in mind
I think Windows is ok. Microsoft seems to be doing a pretty good job with the upcoming Windows 10 (which is what I’m running right now). It’s just that they like their XBox One too much. Don’t buy XBONE or PS4 games on PC if they fuck them up. Really wouldn’t buy them on XBONE or PS4 either, cuz they CAN do better on the consoles. Right now they’re really just re-releasing a bunch of games for the quick profit cuz people keep on buying for some reason. Like Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, and even Battlefield now.
Windows 10 looks like its going to be pretty nice. In fact, I think I am going to be finally building the new computer I have been wanting to build once Win10 comes out and use my old one as a media center since it has Windows Media Center installed and everything since Microsoft werent nearly as penny pinching back then.
Admittedly, there are some games that I love playing their incremental sequels. Assassin’s Creed is a beautiful series with a cool story and neat settings, I hate Ubisoft’s excess of stupid statements, such as the one that prompted this article, but until they start messing with PC gamers’ graphics options, I will remain.. Somewhat willing to purchase their games.. Albeit always on sale. Waiting for Black Flag to come down in price before I play it.
Not every game has to be 100% new and original to be fun. Sometimes its nice to play your old favorites with a fresh makeover.
PC gamers should never be limited to a console period!
Damn under powered consoles this Generation is ruining gaming. What happens when Oculus comes out, it needs games to run at 90 FPS (Which Cheap PC HW will handle in 2016). Games running at 30fps will cause motion sickness. I hope Steam is successful with it’s console (I know its really just a PC) and we start seeing some Steam/PC exclusives that crush this Gen of consoles. With UDK4 and CryEngine Indie game development is becoming much easier. Companies won’t need a Publisher thanks to Steam.
I didn’t buy Evil Within, Nor will I be getting AC:Unity, heck I might not even get FC4 and I’m a big Farcry fan.
Fuck this game if they lock it to 30 – fuck right off!!
Get ready to die because Assassin’s Creed Unity is out and even with a Nvidia 970 I am barley getting over 30 to 45 fps on high settings.
I am confused here last I checked PS4 was selling twice as many consoles this Gen then last Gen not a console gamer got 3 grand in this PC I am typing on but to say this Gen is selling poorly is not true wished it was true but it is not.
What he is saying is mostly true the big gamming DEV’s EA,Ubi and I could name a few more as of late have really put out some really bad games at lunch yes after 6 months or so and many patches later they play ok but no one should have to wait 6 months to play a game they paid for today.
That’s why I play all my games on free unlocked servers yea if you want the gear up front you donate but all the gear is unlocked and can be gotten in game with hard work.
You guys yelling that games suck because they don’t run at 60fps. Please, remember that games are more than fps, you are just putting your head in a box and losing good games you could have fun playing.
I’m playing The Evil Within locked at 30fps ( I didn’t bother to unlock the 60 fps ) and the game looks great. My GPU is MSI R9 280 OC Edition and the gpu load hits 70%, it means I’d need to OC my GPU and get higher temps to run the game at 60 frames. Other point is that even overclocking my gpu or getting a better gpu, I’d get frame drops while loading new zones in games like Shadow of Mordor and Dragon Age.
I had an experience with Batman Arkham City, I’d had one GTX 650ti and it could run the game at 900p 50fps. When I bought my R9, I tested all my “old” games just to see a result. The Batman kept having some issues while loading the map zones, it was dropping from 60 frames to 45 ~ 50 and that is really annoying.
My point is that developing games optimized for 60 frames ( maintaning the graphics quality) isn’t good because not everyone has money to buy a pc to play a game like that. Getting a ring to pair PS4 requiriments is already expensive and imagine how expensive it could get to pair a PS4 quality running at 60fps.
I think it should be better to develop games focusing 30 frames ( like they did in The Evil Within), but leaving room for enthusiasts, not doing like in Shadow of Mordor where if you get 2 frames below 60 you notice an annoying change in smoothness.
You (and me) need to understand that we are minority and industry sells to majority, thinking of business stuff. It doesn’t make sense to make a minority happier than majority, when talking about the number of clients you can have.
Regards,
Dom.
You’ll be losing great games experience. I feel sorry for you. =)
unity isnt capped. its just shit
+1 on that one.
And why not downgrade the PC games to the lowest settings as well… Plus remove the option of playing on keyboard and mouse… I mean what the hell are Sony and MS thinking… Many gamers purchase the latest processors and graphics cards just to play games on 4k and 60 fps… or even on 120 fps… why not sony and MS guys stick their noses to their own butts… and leave PC decisions alone… we are spending on hardware for every extra frame per second that drips down on our monitor… why not let us enjoy when we are ready to pay for it…
Thought PC master race were whining but they’re right this is dodgy practice they need to bring on stronger hardware sooner for consoles and stop skanking PC owners like nowww!!
how does 30fps lag?
OMG if they ever do I might as well give up my pc and find another hobby have you ever played a racing or rally game at 30 fps it really sucks compared to 60+ why do we buy new $1000 video cards(so we can play games at 30 fps)
And why shouldn’t someone preorder a game? Especially one that they know they would pick up launch day? Seriously? Give me a legitimate reason as to why a person shouldn’t? And let’s pretend this is a game that is coming with zero preorder bonuses, so that it is easier for you to make a rebuttal as to why preordering a game that would otherwise be a day one purchase is bad.