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Ubisoft: 'We Did Not Lower The Specs For Assassin's Creed Unity... For Any One System'
One of the debates that has consumed part of the new-generation discussion is the issue of varying resolutions and framerates on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Recent comments from Assassin's Creed senior producer Vincent Pontbriand are the latest to ignite the discussion.
Speaking with Videogamer, Pontbriand revealed that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions will run at 900p and 30 frames per second. "We decided to lock them at the same specs to avoid all the debates and stuff," he says. Ubisoft, however, has offered clarity, unequivocally stating that it did not handicap one of the console versions to achieve artificial parity.
"We understand how senior producer Vincent Pontbriand’s’s quotes have been misinterpreted," Ubisoft told us in an emailed statement. "To set the record straight, we did not lower the specs for Assassin’s Creed Unity to account for any one system over the other. Assassin’s Creed Unity has been engineered from the ground up for next-generation consoles. Over the past four years, we have created Assassin’s Creed Unity to attain the tremendous level of quality we have now achieved on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC."
Pontbriand also told Videogamer that Unity's A.I. and on-screen non-player characters require more power from the CPU (the limiting factor) rather than the GPU. This has lead to a spec that is lower than the maximum 1080p, 60 frames per second output of which the new consoles are capable.
"It’s a process of building up toward our goals, not scaling down, and we’re proud to say that we have reached those goals on all SKUs," Ubisoft's emailed statement says. "At no point did we decide to reduce the ambitions of any SKU. All benefited from the full dedication of all of our available optimization resources to help them reach the level of quality we have today with the core Assassin’s Creed Unity experience.”
The PlayStation 4 version of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag launched at a lower-than-maximum resolution, but received a post-launch patch to bump that up to 1080p. For more on Assassin's Creed Unity, check out our preview that went live earlier today.
[Source: Videogamer]
Our Take
Resolution and framerate aren’t my favorite topics, as I’d much rather discuss how a game plays. However, the directness of the explanation caught our attention. Ubisoft's clarification approaches the matter from a different direction, but ultimately the facts do not change. Unity will run at 900p and 30 frames per second on both platforms, so play where your friends are since co-op is this year's big addition.
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