Ubisoft has denied that the graphical prowess of the PS4 version of Assassin's Creed Unity were lowered to achieve parity with the Xbox One version following comments from senior producer Vincent Pontbriand who seemed to suggest this was the case.
Pontbriand commented that the game would run at 30fps and 900p on both PS4 and Xbox One in order to "avoid all the debates and stuff." He also pinned the blame for the technical limitations on the systems' CPUs, rather than their GPUs.
However, in a statement to GameInformer, Ubisoft remarked "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 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."
In relation to Pontbriand's comments in relation to the PS4 and Xbox One CPU, Ubisoft stated "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.”
Creative director Alex Amancio has also told the Red Bull game blog why Unity is skipping Wii U, stating that the system simply isn't powerful enough, and any version of the game on Nintendo's console would be compromised, something Ubisoft wasn't willing to do.
"It couldn't, it really couldn't," Amancio said. "I mean this is why from the beginning, this was going to be a new-gen-only title, because the crowds aren't aesthetic, they actually have impact. If we did anything to hinder that or to reduce that it would have a detrimental impact, it wouldn't be the same experience."
"I don't think that would be fair to fans, to sell the same game but with different levels of experience," he continued. "Even the seamless nature of the series and the scale of the game right, we couldn't do that. We never load Paris. It wouldn't be possible, in our minds we'd be cheating fans by providing a lesser version of the same game."
Of course, there are two major Assassin's Creed games coming out this year but Amancio didn't comment on why Rogue will be skipping Wii U as well. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has however previously commented that Assassin's Creed games don't sell on the system and Watch Dogs will likely be the company's last mature game for Wii U.
Ubisoft released a new story trailer for Unity yesterday, which delved into protagonist Arno's past and introduced Napoleon Bonaparte for the first time.
Assassin's Creed Unity is set for release on November 14th for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
