Ubisoft denies that The Division for PC is intentionally being held back

This isn’t the first time Ubisoft has been criticised for its defence or adoption of platform parity—that is, a graphical/technical parity between the PS4, Xbox One and PC—and it probably won’t be the last.

Ubisoft’s PR team really needs to gather the many employees under the Ubisoft umbrella, so that they might discuss, come to a general consensus and get their ducks in a row.

That’s because, once again, someone within Ubisoft’s ranks mentioned that the PC version of The Division was kept “in check with consoles because it would kind of be unfair just to push it so far away from them.” That’s platform parity, if ever we’ve heard it.

The comments in question were made during the same Team Epiphany interview we talked about a couple days ago, in which the same developer let slip graphical settings for the console versions of the game.

Unsurprisingly, in a statement to PC GamesN, Ubisoft has denied that the PC version was intentionally held back.

It has come to our attention that a comment from one of our team members has been perceived by some members of the community to imply the PC version of The Division was ‘held back’ and this is simply not true. From the beginning, the PC version of The Division was developed from the ground up and we’re confident players will enjoy the game and the features this version has to offer. And the feedback from PC players who participated in the recent closed beta supports this.”

We were rather hoping Ubisoft would clarify what the development meant when they mentioned holding back the PC version, but we suspect Ubisoft felt a generic clarification the best response – lacking the potential for it to backfire.

There’s a lot to consider when designing an engine for multiple platforms, as well as how the resources of each platform affects development choices for games using said engine.

Perhaps what the developer was referring to was initial choices made in the coding of the engine – sacrificing the tools developers might need to push the PC version too far for the sake of financial viability and the complications it might cause. After all, very few PC gamers would have the rigs capable of taking advantage of those assets in the first place.

The original Crysis, for example, was way ahead of its time – a game designed for hardware that didn’t exist just yet, keeping its engine and visuals relevant for years following its release.

We would like to point out that the PC version of The Division doesn’t look the much better than the console versions.

It runs smoother, sure, but we’re all well aware that Ubisoft Massive could do a lot more with the PC version if they really wanted to. Perhaps that’s what he’s referring to – the lack of development time and resources necessary to really drive the PC version home.

At least it runs smoothly on PC, sort of.