Ubisoft on 900p: “Ubisoft Does Not Constrain Its Games”

Ubisoft states anything over 900p resolution in Assassin’s Creed Unity would have come at a cost to the gameplay.

Ubisoft has further clarified its decision to lock Assassin’s Creed Unity at 900p in a statement issued to the company blog. In this statement, Ubisoft claims a resolution higher than 900p would have led to sacrifices in gameplay.

“Ubisoft does not constrain its games,” Gary Steinman, Ubisoft’s senior communications manager, wrote on the company’s blog. “We would not limit a game’s resolution. And we would never do anything to intentionally diminish anything we’ve produced or developed.”

Ubisoft first revealed the resolution for Assassin’s Creed Unity in an interview with Videogamer; both the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Unity will run at 900p and 30 frames per second. The interview implied Ubisoft lowered the specs specifically for the PS4 version. Senior producer Vincent Pontbriand said, “We decided to lock them at the same specs to avoid all the debates and stuff.”

Pontbriand then elaborated the AI and numerous NPCs on screen limited Ubisoft to running Unity at 30 frames per second. Since then, Ubisoft developer Nicolas Guérin told TechRadar Ubisoft kept framerate down to give the game a cinematic feeling.

After consumers accused Ubisoft of decreasing the game’s performance on PS4 to match the Xbox One, Ubisoft issued an official 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.”

In yesterday’s company statement, Pontbriand said he understands how the interview led people to believe Ubisoft was “holding back” Unity on PS4. “I simply chose the wrong words when talking about the game’s resolution, and for that I’m sorry.”

Ubisoft defended its decision to lock the resolution at 900p and said Assassin’s Creed Unity is pushing the Xbox One and PS4 more than ever before. Buildings in Paris nearly have a 1:1 scale whereas previous games set buildings at three-fourths the size. Unity also has more NPCs – thousands on screen at a time, Ubisoft states – to recreate the size and density of Paris. Ubisoft also noted a game’s resolution isn’t set until late in development.

“The team has dedicated much of the past few months to optimizing Unity to reach 900p with a consistent 30 frames per second,” Steinman wrote. “Considering the sheer number of pixels that are being moved around at all times – which affects both the CPU and GPU – that’s a significant achievement, especially as Assassin’s Creed Unity will release when the new-gen consoles are barely more than a year old.”

Source: Ubisoft