When a game is released on multiple console platforms, it’s common to see it featuring the same graphics quality everywhere, and it’s rare to have a game that looks better on one platform compared to another. And yet, we’re hearing rumors that this is exactly what’s going to happen when Ubisoft release their “The Division” this year.
Reports indicate that the game is being developed to run at a higher resolution on the PlayStation 4, as the console is apparently able to handle the game’s engine a bit better compared to the Xbox One. More specifically, the alleged leak claims that the PlayStation 4 version of the game will have full 1080p support, while on the other hand, the Xbox One version will be limited to 900p.
There hasn’t been any official confirmation of those claims yet, but for what it’s worth, the last time Ubisoft’s developers talked about graphics, they were saying something different. At Ubisoft Massive, they said that they’re putting a lot of effort into trying to optimize the game’s performance and visual quality on all platforms, including the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
It could be that they’ve run into some walls in their technological progress since then, or simply that they haven’t been able to get the same kind of performance out of the Xbox One. Which would be strange, as the console has been praised for its quite serious capabilities, and it’s not really underpowered compared to the PlayStation 4.
The game is not actually being developed in a unified process across all platforms, according to what we’ve been told so far. The studio treats each separate platform version as a unique project, and they’re essentially working on several games at the same time in this context. While this will definitely resolve issues related to porting code and content over different platforms, it could also cause some problems with keeping the game in the same state across all of its versions, but Ubisoft are not a new studio, they know what they’re doing.
Hopefully, the studio is going to clear up the current confusion on the game’s visual quality in the coming weeks. When “The Division” was initially shown, one of the things that drew people in particular was how impressive the game looked. People kept pointing out various small details from the trailer, such as the way the player closes a car door when passing close to it. It’s clear that Ubisoft are putting a lot of effort into making the game look good and feel immersive, so hopefully they won’t have to downgrade that for some of its versions, and everyone will get to enjoy the same quality.