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The Division Downgraded On PC

AlamoX

AlamoX

AlamoX

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We will not reveal our source dev (whose employment we confirmed and vowed we would not reveal the identity of) but the info should be taken with a grain of salt as a result. Today, I have the ultimate displeasure to inform the public that apparently the E3 demo of The Division was running on a PC and will be downgraded overall. Developers often overshoot for the moon and end up delivering next to nothing in terms of the visual garbage that the final retail copies end up becoming (Far Cry 3, Watch Dogs, Dark Souls II in comparison to their non-downgraded counterparts). This sort of false advertising and marketing absolutely has to stop. It is a vile and dementedly sick way of companies to make money off of people who obviously preorder because the game is visually impressive. Yes – some may claim “gameplay weighs in more” but this is arguable.

He tells us the following:

We really loved the reception to the demo we showed on the PC version at E3. Currently as it stands, there is definitely a lot of push coming from publishers to not make the experience so different on consoles as to alienate people into thinking that next generation is not as powerful as PC. This is probably what happened at Ubisoft Montreal. I think that while making stability changes is definitely important, it does not completely obliterate a lot of enhanced rendering applications.

Right now we already took out quite a lot of screen space reflections from the game and are working on asset management the best we can given consoles have that great unified memory. Naturally we will also be using online servers and have to produce a synchronization that higher graphics add to the latency so it had to be turned down. To me it still looks good, but not as good as the original reveal. I am sure as we get closer to launch and the actual console versions of the game featuring SD (Snowdrop) that it will start to seem all too obvious to people especially those on PCs. I just wanted to write and let you know that it definitely is not just stability but marketing politics plays into this a lot as well.

UPDATED 2nd Response from The Division Developer: Truth be told in regards to your question that while ‘Yes’ the lead platform is the PC, we simply cannot have such a big gap. As you know when the first WATCH DOGS Review was published by that one site, Ubisoft called it a “false review” and I am sure everyone can see how bad that sounded when they saw the game did look marginally better than something that was a last generation GTA IV. But no, they will not admit that they practice this or actively downgrade a game. It is much easier to say they removed things for stability which is often a lie as you can tell by the post-issues which are expected in any production we do.

Also to answer your 3rd question, no…they will never fully disclose what was removed from what build as no laws ask them to do so in terms of consumer rights. If we as developers published that information in very real terms for the consumer such as “Replaced particle fog simulation with 2d layer simulation in 3d space, removed particles from all explosions, lowered explosion volume multiplier by 20x, removed X # of trees and civilians, etc.” we would be out of a lot of sales and probably it would actually require too much time to deliver on the current hype that a lot of downgraded games see which look incredible with a vertical slice. I do share this in the hope’s that my colleagues and publishers and a lot of people who make false promises and do demonstrations which wrongfully create too much hype that they cannot deliver on ultimately stop doing such things. I want to see the industry actually move forward and not be so full of itself by promising too much and delivering too little. Regards
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Our insider who is currently in the graphics technical division at Ubisoft Massive in Sweden contacted us because he too is sick of the practices that a company like Ubisoft has become all too known for. If Ubisoft denies downgrades have not happened and uses the lame excuse that “it is for the gamers and stability we did what we did” then there is certainly no reason for the PC/console parity to exist because currently the downgraded Watch Dogs runs sub-par still which is an utter joke. Everyone knows “next generation” currently as it stands is utter marketing BS. Of course, a lot of the uneducated folks out there feel this is more. Next gen, means next gen! If this is the case, PC raw throughput has the greatest power of any console despite having lower development focus (due to piracy). Essentially if it is not obvious by now: Next Gen has diminished any chances of making graphics leaps for the marketers to make more money on “next-gen” until the next next-gen comes out. It is a great marketing hype that is all too common in the gaming industry.

Bottom line: Publishers and developers – stop lying and rely on actual gameplay that is close to the real thing to do your marketing for you. And if you did remove a lot of features that affected the stability of the game, make sure to release a full disclosure of what this is before the game comes out. Oh wait…but then you would not see as many sales. Tsk tsk.

Source : http://whatifgaming.com/the-division-developer-insider-we-already-downgraded-a-few-things
 
doesnt really come as a surprise to me, but damn it's disapointing...
this is the only Ubisoft game i was looking forward to, now not anymore.
if im gonna look at the window on a building and see unreleated reflection, if there is no more dynamic lighting, weather, it's basicly all the good stuff, the story line it self wasn't there, but if they managed to fail the story line in watch dogs that had protential, i dont see them doing anything interesting with the division now, all it had was it's graphics.
 
If the article is true or not, I will be holding off buying this and any other UBI game till the game is out and reviewed. I am not one to jump on bad rumours but there does appear to be a few 'bad rumours' hanging over UBI of late.
 
Ubisoft sure know how to alienate there target market.. Gamers..

First the poop that was Watch Dogs, now this..

Wander if they will stall reviews of this game until pre-orders are complete like they did with Watch Dogs.. It's a dirty business for sure..
 
This is just another reason why you never buy Ubisoft titles. If this isn't the wakeup call you needed, look at the previous dozen wake calls they've given you before. Do not give them your money, or expect mediocrity and or disappointment.
 
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basically, regardless of whether it is true or the "stability" thing is, mainly what we learn is that E3 videos are overhyped and wait for the full game reviews / vids before buying
 
Another target for hate on Metacritic then. It is good to see what is really going on here and that is sabotage. They want people to stick to console because there is more money to be made by them there. The games are higher priced for much less quality and work compared to the PC. And there is very little pirate activity for the PS4 and Xbox one right now.


So it is a win-win for them to make the PC look the same. Infact i wouldnt put it past these scum to make it run worse on the PC. Watch Dogs looks awful and is something i will not even bother to torrent. If the division goes the same way so be it im not fussed. There are still great developers left but there are a few stinkers like EA and Ubisoft who need to die.


They are in denial about the master race just like the sony/ms fanboys who still game on 900p/60 thinking it is next-gen. I do not know if i should get angry considering the bundle of laughs that is next gen console. It was next gen like six years ago for us!
 
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Spare a thought for Nvidia and GameWorks, they just partnered with a game developer that does not care about pc gamers. :o
 
It's Ubisoft. It's hilarious people still buy anything they've touched. Gluttons for punishment I guess :p

Just stop buying their games?
 
Ubisoft really have gone downhill recently, most evidence points towards them purposely downgrading the performance and visual fidelity of the PC version of Watch Dogs to suit their apparent console-centric warped agenda. They will not be getting any more of my money, not until they actively admit that they made a mistake and show that they are changing their ways.

We need more developers like CD Projekt Red out there.
 
LtMatt said:
This is just another reason why you never buy Ubisoft titles. If this isn't the wakeup call you needed, look at the previous dozen wake calls they've given you before. Do not give them your money, or expect mediocrity and or disappointment.
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Ubisoft dont make mediocure games though Matt. You are right in that as PC gamers we shouldnt buy them but first and fore-most I am a gamer. They happen to make and have made some of my favourite games ie,Far cry 2 and 3,splinter cell,watchdogs (I liked it),child of light,the last 2 ass creeds and quite a few others. Consoles are where the revenue is wether we like it or not and thats who hold sway but its worth debating that as gamers should we not be playing them because they are not as pretty as they could be? Of course its shocking and Ubisoft have a history of screwing over PC gamers and have never shown anything but contempt for us but,Man........I still like those games :confused:

I personally dont like Jim Sterling but this is worth a watch.....
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/9462-Ubisoft-A-Sad-History-of-PC-Failures
 
Only Developers you can count on imho and in no particular order,

Nintendo

Valve

RockStar

Naughty Dog

Bethesda

Sucker Punch

CD Projekt RED

Rocksteady

Digital Illusions CE (DICE)
 
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