New information on Tom Clancy’s The Division trickled onto the web last week, courtesy of a new video from Team Epiphany, but anyone planning to pick up a PC copy of Massive’s upcoming open-world shooter might want to keep reading before placing their pre-order for The Division.
Last week, Team Epiphany published a lengthy new video of Tom Clancy’s The Division, featuring new gameplay footage captured during a recent Ubisoft play test event. Longtime fans of both the Team Epiphany channel and Tom Clancy’s The Division will be pleased to hear the popular content creators got a chance to speak with a member of the game’s dev team for its latest video. Unfortunately, the big news from Team Epiphany, or at least the unnamed developer answering questions throughout the video, is confirmation Massive will intentionally hold back certain aspects of the game’s PC port, the goal being graphical parity (or something close to it) between the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions.
“We do have to kind of keep it in check with the consoles, because it would be kind of unfair to just to push is so far away from them,” the developer said. “But it’s been good having a dedicated PC build for this game. I’m really happy that we’re pushing the PC build as much as we are.”
We’re not sure everyone in the PC gaming community will agree, though; particularly once they hear The Division looks worse than it could (on PC) just so console gamers don’t have to fret with the idea of their preferred gaming platforms already being outdated. We typically see at least small outcries any time the release build of a game looks noticeably worse than whatever footage the general public is shown ahead of launch. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that some fans in the video’s comment section are expressing their unhappiness about the announcement. Then again, Digital Foundry has already confirmed some aspects of The Division will look noticeably better on PC. So who knows what to expect.
The news could be particularly troubling for the PC community given another revelation in the video; specifically, that the game’s engine will push the PS4 and Xbox One so hard Massive is letting players disable certain lighting effects to get a better frame rate. It’s not often we see these sorts of adjustments being allowed by developers, the most recent AAA example being Naughty Dog’s decision to let players swap between 30fps and 60fps in The Last Of Us: Remastered. Those who took part in the game’s recent beta know the latest public build of The Division was locked at 30fps, so it’s possible Massive is aiming for a system similar to what we saw in TLOU.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is being developed for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The project is currently scheduled to debut March 8.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Tom Clancy’s The Division coverage throughout 2016 and for however long Massive continue to support The Division in the months following launch.
