When Ubisoft first revealed “The Division”, the game was surrounded by a lot of hype as it looked like it was going to be spectacular in every way. Indeed, the studio was obviously putting a lot of effort into its production at that time, and fans expected to see something very advanced once the game is out. At the same time, Ubisoft kept the hype high by releasing even more information that made it look better and better.
However, the studio had to continuously delay the game due to various development issues, and in the end it looked like it would take a while to finally see it out. At the same time, fans were starting to get skeptical that they would get the exact game that they were promised in the beginning, due to some rumors allegedly coming from within the studio. It sounded like Ubisoft were facing some difficult issues with the development of the title and were planning to cut down on some features.
And now, some reports are coming out claiming that the game has indeed been downgraded from what we saw in the initial preview a couple of years ago, and it might not look that impressive once it arrives to the market. Quite on the contrary, Ubisoft might have had to downgrade the visual fidelity to some extent in order to get the game out in time, and it looks like this might be yet another flop by the studio.
This is starting to become a worrying trend for Ubisoft, as the company has been missing deadlines and bailing on promises to their community, leading some fans to wonder if everything is alright within the studio. We haven’t heard any reports indicating that there could be problems with their work, but then again, they might be good at concealing the situation. It wouldn’t be the first time a studio was involved in a negative situation but weren’t being open to their community about it until the very end, but from what we know about Ubisoft and their current situation, that should not be the case.
Regardless, if the studio does come out with lower-grade graphics in “The Division”, that would not go over well with the community. Some people have been expressing disappointment already, claiming that the graphics of this game were one of its main selling features in the first place and it would be a bad move for Ubisoft to decide to lower the quality in this aspect. Still, if the studio really is facing such a hard time sticking to all of their plans from the beginning, it might be a better idea to do this instead of delaying the game more and more as time goes by. The latter would definitely annoy the community even more in the long run and it would be a bad idea overall. Plus, it might have some negative implications for the game itself.
After all, even if it looked very good in the preview, trends are changing fast and it might look significantly worse compared to other titles on the market after some time has passed. If it doesn’t come out by the end of 2016, the game might actually need an upgrade, not a downgrade in order to survive the criticism that it’s going to get. Realistically, nothing is going to make up for a delay of this magnitude which also comes with lower grade graphics.
And the subject matter of this article is exactly the reason why the gaming industry needs to grow up. Complaining about the downgrade of a single aspect of a video game that is 1+ years away from release. It would be a miracle of they didn’t have to downgrade it. If the new Star Wars movie was delayed because of some technical reason fans would be disappointed but they would move on. With this game being delayed or promises made (exactly when did they make promises to anyone for anything?) people are all hurt and full of hate speech and death threats and everything they can think of to make the developers and everyone working on the game to find other employment for safety’s sake if nothing else. Maybe invest more time in real life instead of a video game.
The #1 most hated publisher of mine is Ubisoft. They REALLY let me down on AC: Unity and ESPECIALLY with “The Crew,” which looked SO promising when we heard rumors of it being a spiritual successor to Burnout Paradise and being made by a bunch of ex-Criterion devs. The game was total shit and I cancelled my pre-order after playing The Crew’s beta, which was not only terrible but the graphics SUCKED! Seriously, Ubisoft? I think all AC games are garbage, I HATE Ubisoft’s uPlay (and there new club is lame too) and they constantly delay games. If the delayed games were at least good, I could obviously understand but most of their games are shit and their delayed games turn out to usually be shit too. With the exception of Child of Light, Trials Fusion and Far Cry 4, Ubisoft can suck it.
This gaming community really needs to grow up. Would you rather have graphics with shitty gameplay or amazing gameplay with downgraded graphics. Take “The Order” for an example, they focused on graphics more than gameplay and created a beautiful game with a storyline that spanned less than 1 hour worth of gameplay. Get over the fact that the graphics were downgraded and enjoy the gameplay.
We don’t need to choose we want both that’s why people are complaining and that’s why you purchased a next gen console (now current), if not people would have kept what they already had PS3 or Xbox 360.