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We've already seen first hand that Ubisoft had downgraded the PC graphics for Watch Dogs, the publisher is also claiming that Far Cry 4 on the PS4 and Xbox One will look the same as the PC's ultra high settings. However, now we have some information suggesting that The Division will also have its PC graphics downgraded.
Now here's a quick disclaimer before we go forward, this information might not be all that reliable. It comes from an anonymous ‘game developer source' speaking to a pretty small website. It's entirely possible that this story was conjured up to get attention in the mist of all of the recent Ubisoft controversy. Now that that's out of the way, lets get straight in to it.
This news comes from Whatifgaming, like I said, it's not from a highly reputable site so take everything with a grain of salt. The site has vowed to not name its source but did verify that the employee was a member of the Ubisoft Massive development team.
According to this developer, there is ” definitely a lot of push coming from publishers to not make the experience so different on consoles as to alienate people in to that next generation isn't as powerful as PC.”
In reference to The Division, the anonymous source went on to explain how the team is already downgrading the game's graphics: “Right now we already took out quite a lot of screen space reflections from the game and are working on asset management as best as we can given the consoles unified memory.”
This is certainly disappointing news given that the Snow Drop Engine tech demo looked amazing as well as subsequent showings of The Division gameplay. The inside source also noted that Ubisoft won't “admit that they actively downgrade games.”
Despite all of this though, apparently the PC is still the lead platform, Ubisoft just won't let us use our hardware to its full potential: “Yes, the lead platform is PC but we simply cannot have such a big gap.”
You can read everything that the developer said, HERE. However, be warned that the whole article isn't worded well, which casts more doubt on the anonymous source.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: While this may not be true, it wouldn't surprise anyone after Ubisoft's recent Far Cry 4 claims and the hidden graphical options found in Watch Dogs. This also begs the question, is it just Ubisoft downgrading its games for console parity reasons? Or are other developers also doing this? Either way, we'll discover the truth at some point. What do you guys think of this?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again
Console vendors are paying them off to do this
Oh I’m sorry, It’s not our fault Microsoft and Sony decided to use cheap shit hardware for their consoles. Why should the hardcore and even the midtier PC gamers have to suffer after all the money they’ve spent and/or saved because of what’s apparently considered “next-gen”? these past 2 years we’ve seen PC take the lead in the global games market but apparantly that doesn’t mean shit because they’re not called “consoles”
(take a reference from Steam Machines here, pure micro-ATX PC’s with a custom OS, that’s considered a console)
If Ubisoft butchers The Division, I will no longer purchase any of their creations.
Quite simple really isn’t it. They won’t be having any of my money. I will not buy a game that has been purposefully gimped to make shitty consoles look better. I’ll stick to developers who put PC first and actually want to take advantage of the power available to them.
DICE may have fucked up with BF4 (largely due to pressure from EA) but at least they actually made a game that looks fucking amazing on PC, at least they actually let us use the power we pay for.
Fuck Ubisoft and fuck Division!
Ubishit strikes again!
Nobody forced you guys to spend 3,000 dollars on a PC, and just because your stupid enough to do that, developers are supposed to abide by your every wish? Enjoy the game for its great story and stop focusing so much on graphics. The game will still look very good!
Acidnfection I think you are missing the point. By no means do you need a super expensive PC to play most games at a higher visual quality than the new consoles. I’ve got a pretty modest set up that cost me about £600 2 years ago and I have no problem playing most things on high.
I do agree that graphics don’t mean anything if the story isn’t up to scratch, hell, one of my favourite games is Kentucky Route Zero (which does look beautiful but that is down to art style.) The problem here is that a publisher is apparently taking quality away from a game. If you bought your favourite sandwich, let’s say cheese and pickle, and you pay a little extra for a good cheddar, but you find you have just been given crap packet cheese in hard bread. It’s still a sandwich but it’s not what you expected.
Consoles are a stale bread encasing a crap cheese.
@AcidInfection Take a hike you filthy Peasant with your Welfare Box Spending $500 on a tablet pretending to be a games machine
Great…Guess what Ubisoft. I’m not buying your games until they drop at least 50% now. I expect PC games to come out cheaper from the beginning than. If not I might as well get your games through other means. If you’re going to downgrade your games to make consoles look stronger than what they are (to stop losses in next-gen consoles) than you’re going to have losses in the PC department.
Why are they stupid for spending 3000 of their own money on a PC? Just because you can’t afford it doesn’t mean others are stupid. Yes developers should maximize the capability of the PC and not match the game graphics with the console. The point is they are purposely doing that so that consoles would look powerful graphics-wise compared to the PC, when in truth, it is not. Portability and compactness comes at a price.
I have a PS3 and a 7 y/o gaming pc that can still play the latest games at medium/high settings. But I do get why people buy/assemble high-end PCs. It’s like watching HD movies, you wouldn’t want to watch SD when you’ve experienced HD.
Stop getting butthurt because you can’t afford expensive PCs. Get with the times.
Ubisoft will never see a cent of my hard earned money for their substandard PC products. They have a lot of work in front of them to gain any sort of respect or trust from this PC gamer.
Another reason to pirate this game. Keep ’em coming, Ubi, since I always pirate your games because of decisions like this one.