Ubisoft Boycott: 'forced parity' for PS4 versions to be downgraded to Xbone level.

[Choze]

http://www.videogamer.com/ps4/assassins_creed_unity/news/assassins_creed_unity_is_900p_30fps_on_both_ps4_and_xbox_one.html

 

Assassin's Creed Unity will run at 900p/30fps on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Ubisoft has confirmed, with the publisher opting to aim for platform parity to avoid discussion over the differences in performance.

 

There it is. It can 'easily' be 1080p with better framerate and graphics on the PS4. The difference in hardware large enough to account for all of those.

 

I was hoping Destiny and other games were an exception since bungie were basically inept all round. There are free effects, resolution enhancements and frame rate improvements to be had on PS4. There is no excuse. Absolutely none. The majority of your customers are on PS4(See collated sales figures on neogaf etc.). Its the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot. Its flat out anti consumer and a scummy practice that goes against what gamers have chosen and spoken about the past generation with Wii, WiiU and Xbone. If MS didnt make their machine good enough effectively creating an inbetween the WiiU and PS4 thats their problem, 'not ours'.

 

This is enough for me to fully ignore Ubisoft and be critical of anyone else following or even suggessting such a policy.

 

Feel free to dicuss.

[Shorty]

Lol, boycott. They always work.

[Choze]

Lol, boycott. They always work.

 

They actually are quite effective. Many developers have gone back on their stances after being punished or harmed reputation or sales wise.

 

Attitudes like this have sunk industries before.

[Agent Gibbs]

Boycotts don't always work, but i agree it is anti consumer considering the PS4 has a considerably larger userbase, you wouldn't get them making a game with parity on all formats if it was on PS4, WiiU and Xbone....so why with this?.....considering this industry i wouldn't be surprised if this is an agreement with Microsoft akin to exclusivity for a period, only this is parity for a period before its patched out

[Choze]

Boycotts don't always work, but i agree it is anti consumer considering the PS4 has a considerably larger userbase, you wouldn't get them making a game with parity on all formats if it was on PS4, WiiU and Xbone....so why with this?.....considering this industry i wouldn't be surprised if this is an agreement with Microsoft akin to exclusivity for a period, only this is parity for a period before its patched out

 

Except, it wont be patched out given previous games that have released so far this gen. There is no upgrade patch coming for Destiny for example. Its not acceptable.

[Happenstance]

Honestly I couldnt care less, I never notice the differences to begin with and will be keeping my Assassins Creed preorder.

[bryanee]

Its bullshit of the highest fucking order. I don't care that its 900p or 30fps, I fucking care that one version is being held back as not to cause any debate or conversation about the power difference's with the consoles. I am so fucking close to cancelling not just my AC pre-order but my FC4 one as well and just pick them up dirt cheap second hand.

 

Any one who says its ok is a numpty and deserves a good slap for being an idiot.

 

And of course boycotts work. I seem to recall the Xbox One being an always on console and not letting you trade in your games and shit....oh wait.

[Cookyman]

Bloody hell it's all kicking off in here - the community is revolting!

 

Edited October 6, 2014 by Cookyman

[Sheikah]

 

And of course boycotts work. I seem to recall the Xbox One being an always on console and not letting you trade in your games and shit....oh wait.

 

The boycotts that work are those that don't require people going on forums, telling people to boycott.

[Daft]

If I hadn't already cancelled my pre-order, this would have done it. I don't need to buy your game UbiSoft, you have to make me want to buy it.

[Jimbob]

Well, i see it on the plus side. At least Microsoft haven't (yet) made this Assassin's Creed entry exclusive to the Xbone, then i'd be pretty upset. Of course i'm a little miffed that Ubi are not making the PS4 version 1080p, 60 fps. At least the game is coming out on both consoles (and PC) for those that want to enjoy it.

[Jonnas]

Well, I suppose it's about time people got together and started protesting the habit of hurting a console's game for the sake of making the competitor's version more appealing.

 

It's a shame this is happening over something as trivial as 180p (instead of, say, the Rayman Legends Wii U delay), but hey, it's a start.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Jonnas

[Choze]

One has to wonder how is it possible Ubisoft are this inept trying to reinforce their lies: Its best tp be honest. Gamers are not that dumb.

 

http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/06/ubisoft-we-did-not-lower-the-specs-for-assassins-creed-unity-on-ps4-because-of-xbox-one/

 

“We understand how Senior Producer Vincent Pontbriand’s’s quotes have been misinterpreted. 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 4 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. 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.

 

“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.”

 

There really ought to be more regulation on this kind of stuff. Would be useful for consumers. This is a perfect example.

[The Bard]

Dats why I game on PC bitchesss *runs"

[Choze]

Dats why I game on PC bitchesss *runs"

 

This issue also affects pc gaming and people rightfully get upset over crap ports.

[Cube]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. People would complain either way, so why bother?

 

The whole internet gamer focus on nothing but two numbers is the real problem, and is something that has only cropped up this generation.

 

Also, a boycott won't affect them at all. The amount of people who care represent a tiny portion of their sales.

[Jonnas]

The whole internet gamer focus on nothing but two numbers is the real problem, and is something that has only cropped up this generation.

 

Also true, unfortunately. Everybody's arguing about slightly different screen resolutions, and I'm just here, gaming on my outdated PC (occasionally playing a 3DS or Wii U at the store).

[Choze]

Also true, unfortunately. Everybody's arguing about slightly different screen resolutions, and I'm just here, gaming on my outdated PC (occasionally playing a 3DS or Wii U at the store).

 

That lovely future where specs don't matter sure worked out well for MS and Nintendo.

 

Also true, unfortunately. Everybody's arguing about slightly different screen resolutions, and I'm just here, gaming on my outdated PC (occasionally playing a 3DS or Wii U at the store).

 

That lovely future where specs don't matter sure worked out well for MS and Nintendo. Despite history constantly suggesting otherwise.

[bryanee]

Yeah I've cancelled my pre-order. I'll be getting it second hand so they wont be getting any of my money.

 

The boycotts that work are those that don't require people going on forums, telling people to boycott.

 

That's exactly how the Xbone boycott started.

[Sheikah]

That's exactly how the Xbone boycott started.

No it wasn't, people saw the policies on news blogs and made up their own mind. My point is, if it's something most people care about enough then they don't need to be told to act.

 

This game will sell well and this information will likely have no effect on sales, since people still want to play the game.

[Jonnas]

That lovely future where specs don't matter sure worked out well for MS and Nintendo. Despite history constantly suggesting otherwise.

 

Last time I checked, high-end specs did nothing for the PS3 until it itself improved in other crucial areas. Ditto for the Xbox, where online was its biggest strength (and ultimately what secured the X360's spot on the market).

Furthermore, Nintendo's handhelds have consistently managed to trump competition with better specs (though we're not exactly talking about handhelds, I figured this was worth a mention).

 

Anyway, I was speaking as a casual consumer who'd rather stick with their old guns instead of jumping on any next-gen bandwagon for 1 year at the very least. No doubt there is a majority that thinks like me, even if it is true that early adopters do more for a console's success.

 

Regardless of all that, I was really only highlighting how meaningless the difference in resolution between PS4 and Xbone is, especially when there is a good portion of consumers for whom older/cheaper gaming devices are still viable.

 

No it wasn't, people saw the policies on news blogs and made up their own mind. My point is, if it's something most people care about enough then they don't need to be told to act.

 

Just a couple of things:

 

1. The difference between "Forums" and "News Blogs" is minimal at best, both are online portals of discussion for fans and potential consumers.

 

2. Voicing their disagreement with the policies is what persuaded Microsoft, as the changes were made before anybody could've shown their opinion with their wallet (I have a feeling this is what you were already saying, but I figured there's nothing wrong with clearing that up)

 

You are correct in saying that there was no organised boycott, so you have an excellent point on how relevant this movement will be.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Jonnas
Automerged Doublepost

[Sheikah]

Just a couple of things:

 

1. The difference between "Forums" and "News Blogs" is minimal at best, both are online portals of discussion for fans and potential consumers.

 

2. Voicing their disagreement with the policies is what persuaded Microsoft, as the changes were made before anybody could've shown their opinion with their wallet (I have a feeling this is what you were already saying, but I figured there's nothing wrong with clearing that up)

 

You are correct in saying that there was no organised boycott, so you have an excellent point on how relevant this movement will be.

 

Yeah the distinction is pretty irrelevant, the point is that people were annoyed enough by the X1 to not buy the console through their own choice (or to voice their opinions). Telling people to boycott, IMO, seems a bit like something you'd do about something that wasn't important enough for people to care about in the first place (or at least not care enough about to boycott it without being asked to).

 

While it's bad news, any boycott regarding this just won't do anything. Most people probably wouldn't care, let alone even come to know about this information.

[Blade]

I don't understand how you would benefit from a boycott.

 

You are just not allowing yourself to buy the game. It's ultimately you that will miss out.

[flameboy]

Boycott will do nothing...Ubisoft franchises don't sell great numbers purely based on consumers like us who frequent forums are up on news...so the masses will fair out way silly little fanboys spitting out their dummys.

[Choze]

No it wasn't, people saw the policies on news blogs and made up their own mind. My point is, if it's something most people care about enough then they don't need to be told to act.

 

This game will sell well and this information will likely have no effect on sales, since people still want to play the game.

 

It took a full week for ms to change their mind after e3. In that time parts of the media were even sympathetic to MS and much more. People not pre ordering the console was pretty clear as well as social media response. The systems still struggles. Also the whole NSA leaks as well them logging your passwords in Windows 10 is not helping. Reputation does matter. It does effect companies like EA too.

 

Boycott will do nothing...Ubisoft franchises don't sell great numbers purely based on consumers like us who frequent forums are up on news...so the masses will fair out way silly little fanboys spitting out their dummys.

 

Who seem to number greater than the amount buying consoles?

 

Last time I checked, high-end specs did nothing for the PS3 until it itself improved in other crucial areas. Ditto for the Xbox, where online was its biggest strength (and ultimately what secured the X360's spot on the market).

Furthermore, Nintendo's handhelds have consistently managed to trump competition with better specs (though we're not exactly talking about handhelds, I figured this was worth a mention).

 

Anyway, I was speaking as a casual consumer who'd rather stick with their old guns instead of jumping on any next-gen bandwagon for 1 year at the very least. No doubt there is a majority that thinks like me, even if it is true that early adopters do more for a console's success.

 

Regardless of all that, I was really only highlighting how meaningless the difference in resolution between PS4 and Xbone is, especially when there is a good portion of consumers for whom older/cheaper gaming devices are still viable.

 

Except its not meaningless. The PS3 and 360 took over the Wii. Historically the Nintendo handhelds are the only exceptions and that hasnt worked out so well this time round with them being in decline. In this case people are critical of an anti consumer stance. Stuff which Nintendo have also been criticized for. If there has been any trend the past few years is an awakening on to unfriendly consumer practices.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Choze