Ubisoft has issued an update on Assassin's Creed Unity's resolution, amid claims that the developer deliberately lowered the game to 900p on PlayStation 4.
On the Ubiblog, Senior Communications Manager Gary Steinman wrote:
"Ubisoft does not constrain its games. We would not limit a game’s resolution. And we would never do anything to intentionally diminish anything we’ve produced or developed."
Concerns over the game's resolution came about as a result of comments made by Senior Producer Vincent Pontbriand who remarked that they had settled on 900p and 30fps for the console versions of the game in order to "avoid debates and stuff."
Addressing the question of whether the game's resolution was lowered on PS4, Pontbriand commented:
“Absolutely not. We’ve spent four years building the best game we could imagine. Why would we ever do anything to hold it back? I simply chose the wrong words when talking about the game’s resolution, and for that I’m sorry.”
Ubisoft says the sheer volume of people in Unity, set a time when Paris was a city of one million people, was part of the reason why the game is set at 900p and Pontbriand added that while previous Ubisoft games, including Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, aimed for 1080p "We wanted to be absolutely uncompromising when it comes to the overall gameplay experience. Those additional pixels could only come at a cost to the gameplay.”
In a TechRadar interview published today, Unity Creative Director Alex Amancio said 30fps "feels better", and asked "who cares" about resolution.
Despite Ubisoft's attempts to clarify, it seems likely that this issue will continue to be controversial up to release and possibly beyond. Assassin's Creed Unity launches on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 14th.