Ubisoft Explains The Difference Between PS4 And Xbox One Versions of Watch_Dogs

"Call us spoiled or just exhausted by the amount of great looking games, but as of now, it’s getting tougher and tougher to see major graphical differences between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Nonetheless, all that extra power is going somewhere – and as noted by Watch_Dogs senior producer Dominic Guay, the PlayStation 4 and other next gen platforms are also helping to push for better design."

[US8F]

“The Xbox One is a powerful platform, as of now we do not foresee a major difference in on screen result between the PS4 and the Xbox One. Obviously since we are still working on pushing the game on these new consoles, we are still doing R&D.

“This said, the platforms have some specificities that we are leveraging. For example, we are making use of the touchpad on the DualShock 4."

[Insomnia_84]

He actually never answered the question. It's going to be the same with the One and PS4 again. All multiplatforms will look the same on both consoles and it has nothing to do with developers not wanting to make the PS4 version better but Microsoft not allowing it. It's already known that MS won't let any game to be released on their platform if it's far superior on the the other console, they must be the same.

[Mystogan]

Source?

[mediate-this]

you know this how? facts and links and please be credible

[adorie]

MS trying to hold back greatness. Good for them, because once the first party games boot 3rd parties, visually, into another galaxy, they will have no choice but to step it up or be made to look like greedy fools.

I understand you need to spend money to make money, that's fine, but MS takes this to another level.

Also, on a side note, what is up with the cheering of these practices?
MS fanboys LOVE IT when MS spends billions trying to stifle the competition. Why? You really want Sony out of the hardware game?

That's an honest to goodness question I have for the die-hard fanboys who defend MS no matter what they do. Positive or negative.

MS could have built so many studios with their cash and culled enough talent to give the Sony first parties a run for their money, but instead they destroy or help destroy the rep of 3rd parties by buying them out.

Politics, I guess?

[joefrost00]

Dude how much is sony paying you

[Insomnia_84]

There it is. It's in Microsoft's content policy.
http://www.escapistmagazine...

@all my disagrees

Now what?

[SonyPS360]

Getting the excuses in early I see.

[The_Con-Sept]

(W) Insomnia 84I agree. Microsoft is making it hard for me to trust anything American made. My car is an import. My tv is an import. Shit my furniture is an import.... The only thing American about my stuff is that it was sold by an American.

I haven't supported the Xbox ever. I knew too much about them to back their gaming sector. If they didn't have such a good desktop operating system I'd switch to another much better one in a heart beat.

As for Ubisoft... I think they should be the first company to rebel against such tyranny.

It would be revolutionary. But of course no one has any courage in this industry. Except for the guy that said 8GB of ram or you are dead in the water."

Why can't people stand up anymore?

[GameCents]

Typical Gokiburi comment about xbox holding back teh powers of teh ps4.

[abzdine]

the article's title should have been this instead:

"Ubisoft DOESN'T Explain The Difference Between PS4 And Xbox One Versions of Watch_Dogs"

[loulou]

"Titles for Xbox 360 must ship at least simultaneously with other video game platform, and must have at least feature and content parity on-disc with the other video game platform versions in all regions where the title is available. If these conditions are not met, Microsoft reserves the right to not allow the content to be released on Xbox 360."

seems more like content to me. and also put in place to combat what happened in the ps2/xbox era. where games like gta where timed exclusive to sony, and really helped the ps2 alot.

where on the original xbox, which had a much bigger power difference with the ps2, than the ps3/360, the games on the xbox were in a different league.

[Mr_Nuts]

I don't see why people are disagreeing, that's MS policy for third party devs

That extra 2GB of RAM Sony has....third party devs won't even touch it and it's kind of sad.

GTA6, ES6, Fallout 4, FFXV, Kingdom Hearts 3 etc

No one will hardly use it except for first party developers which is sad because devs complain about wanting more RAM, they finally have more with the PS4 and they won't use it

[guitarded77]

Here's the source... see pic.

I know, he provided a source. But I've been waiting to use this image again for months. So, here it is.

On-Topic:
3rd party has the power to tell MS F-U. If MS wants their games, they can #dealwithit.

[dredgewalker]

@Insomnia
The logical answer why Ubi would release equal versions of their game on both platforms is because they want to cater to both. Making a superior version on another console would surely hurt their sales. A good businessman knows how to satisfy 2 different customers.

[starchild]

@Insomnia-84

You Playstation guys always say that, but it doesn't hold water.

First of all, lots of games do in fact look better on the PS3, so how are those games exempt from this supposed policy?

Second, most multi plats show clear differences and optimizations specific to each console. To those with technical knowledge this is clear evidence that developers are in fact working to best take advantage of each console's strengths.

You guys want to believe this so bad because you just can't accept that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are very close in power or that the 360 does indeed have advantages in some ways. Multiplatform games often looked better on the 360 because it has a more powerful gpu and unified memory architecture, and that it was easier to develop for, not because Microsoft pays developers to make them that way, or any other bullsh!t conspiracy theory.

PS4 is plainly more powerful than Xbox One and we WILL see this reflected in multiplatform games. Mark my words.

[nypifisel]

No third party developer will praise one console over the other. These are cross gen games, in a year or two I'm confident there will be a noticeable difference between the two consoles.

[starchild]

Also, your link doesn't say anything about about MS requiring devs to make PS3 games inferior or 360 games look at least as good. It wasn't about visuals or performance at all.

All the policy refers to is the fact games can't, for example, launch on July 12th on PS3 and July 29th on the 360. Furthermore, they said they reserve the "right" to not allow such games on their console, but that doesn't mean that they will exercise that right. After all, we saw plenty of games with exclusive content on the PS3.

[YNWA96]

They not paying, hes willfully oral....

[AlphaJunk]

Where does it say anything about graphics fidelity Parity?? -->
Microsoft's Content Submission and Release Policy states:

"Titles for Xbox 360 must ship at least simultaneously with other video game platform, and must have at least feature and content parity on-disc with the other video game platform versions in all regions where the title is available. If these conditions are not met, Microsoft reserves the right to not allow the content to be released on Xbox 360."

Read more at http://www.escapistmagazine...

[Manic2014]

Wouldn't that be the same with Sony of not allowing one game to be superior in one system and weaker on the other.

[esemce]

Also if a downloadable game has been on another platform first then Microsoft will not allow it to be on their console.

[miyamoto]

Spot on!

That crap politics and DVD 9 really held back the industry in 7th gen
https://www.google.ca/searc...

This is why the PS4 is created to be leaps and bounds over the XBone

No more subtle or minor differences this time around.

M$ fell for the 4GB RAM trap Sony has laid and there is no way out of it. Its too late.

As if the Ps4 is cleverly designed to defeat every move M$ will make with XBone platform.

PS4 will leave XPosed One in the dust.

PS4 Super Saiyan 4 > XBone Level 1

[miDnIghtEr20C_SfF]

I knew 3rd party games would look close to the same for the first couple years of this new generation.

[Condemnedman]

you sir are just talking rubbish you have no proof and I will wait and see what both systems offer. Stop talking crap.

[THC CELL]

better really, why dose the ps version have a extra hour of gameplay.

[Consoldtobots]

We all know what the genesis of this since it was revealed what MS demanded of Rockstar in exchange for the $50 million bribe to get GTA4 on the 360.
The precedent is THERE for MS dirty tactics, the question in my mind is : I would have legally ruined MS for anti-competitive practices, violation of the Rico statute(with a good lawyer you could make this fly) and whatever else I could throw at them. Sony really is the nerdy kid who won't stoop to such levels I guess.

[strifeblade]

I love microsoft- they are only here to protect their consumers- this way all that power on ps4 will never come to fruition on multiplats.

So "A 50% increase in raw shader performance, 2x the fillrate and 8x the compute queue granularity, plus a faster and simpler ram configuration" it all doesnt even matter because multiplats will look the SAME.

MUHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Man am i evil or what? microsoft protects their gamers and screwed sony gamers over. Looks like all that power will only ever show in sony first party exclusives. Well atleast msoft has cloud for first party exclusives- should defenetly make up for something lol.

In all honesty good msoft policy- protects the interest of its consumer base.

cheers

[Benchm4rk]

Doesnt say anything about graphics. It talks about content and feature parity. Nothing about quality parity.

[Nafon]

didn't bungie say destiny would look different between platforms?

[solidt12]

He is right. it is part of the certification process.

[gedapeleda]

@Insomnia_84

If you read that policy it says that games need to be equal content and feature wise. Which doesn't mean graphics. People you should stop looking for bullshit excuses.

[Gamer1982]

@insomnia_84 thats bullcrap did you see FF13 last gen the ps3 version blew the 360 version out he water even after MS gave S-E money to port it to the 360 AND advertised the crap out of it.

[mysterym]

Jesus kid, just stick to wearing a tin foil hat.

[hesido]

"Titles for Xbox 360 must ship at least simultaneously with other video game platform, and must have at least feature and content parity on-disc with the other video game platform versions in all regions where the title is available. If these conditions are not met, Microsoft reserves the right to not allow the content to be released on Xbox 360."

Feature and content parity meaning they risk release on Xbox360 if they put additional stuff on Bluray on multiplatforms.

[caliman87]

final fantasy and battlefield says hi

[DrJones]

What utter rubbish.

[malokevi]

What a misleading title. The article isn't about the difference between XboxOne and PS4 at all. And, when it is, the answer is essentially "they are the same".

Garbage journalism with blatant spin. Fantastic, fits right in here at N4g.

[JsonHenry]

MS not allowing it? No no no. Im no fan of MS right now but the devs are the ones being lazy and (or smart with their money, however you want to look at it) and not spending the extra time making the games look the best they can on each platform.

[Thomaticus]

Its common knowledge... as a m it matter of fact MS policy has something to do with Sony's similar policy which is why a game that was exclusive on Xbox has to be released as a special edition with some additional content.

It hard to pinpoint a source, but this stuff has been mentioned before. Come on guys keep up with your readings!

[_QQ_]

@Adorie PC Third party games are going to look the best, so what you are saying is just get a PC?, that way you can play third party games without the restrictions of xboxone/PS4.

[titletownrelo]

It accomplishes NOTHING.

[Mystogan]

So there you have it. You're not going to see any difference in graphics.

[torchic]

So there you have it. I sincerely hope that we're not going to see any difference in graphics, even though PS4 is much more powerful with better dev tools.

fixed.

[SilentNegotiator]

Uh, actually he ultimately said it's too early to tell.

"we are still doing R&D"

"not foresee" =/= 'There won't be'

But keep spreading those pro-Xbox lies. Maybe you'll misinform enough people for the Xbox's problems to all just blow away in the wind.

[PFFT]

Better developer tools really. Well thats a first.
And good luck with that. Cause Sony cant code for shit. Which is why most often than not their patches and whatnot brick systems.

[Gamer1982]

He didn't say that he said the PS4 is like a powerful PC basically then went on to say the Xbox One is pretty powerful too didn't compare it but in reality he avoided the question.

[DeFFeR]

Similar to this gen, we probably won't see EXTREME graphical differences between the two consoles for third party games. Where the consoles will shine will definitely be exclusives where they have only one platform to focus on.

The edge will almost guaranteed be for the PS4 just based on the specs we've seen so far.

That said - it's still a large unknown how the XBOne cloud will play a role in the development of games and the impact it will have on graphics. If the cloud can take some of the load off of the on-system processing, there might be room to match the output the PS4 has.

Time will tell. I'll get both systems eventually, but the PS4 has my money this fall based on customer loyalty alone. The only thing MS has me hooked on is Halo and Forza - neither of which are worth spending $500 + games to play. Get some of those exclusives out (Quantum Break looks like a decent game, along with Sunset Overdrive) and make it worth the purchase. The fact it doesn't launch with a Halo title will probably cause the sales to stagger off the bat.

[frelyler]

Cloud computing cannot make fidelity better based on the current infrastructure for internet service in the US. There is far too much lag, no amount of servers MS or Sony puts up is going to change that. The cloud will be used for small background things that lag would not impede. People thinking the graphics will be somehow better are dreaming, it's just a fact that with current technology improving fidelity will not work to the extent people believe it will. It is too variable and too many things come into play depending on the time of day and how many people are using their ISP at any given time. Besides if you look at the wording MS used they said in the future the cloud will enable improvements. They never specified when this will be and would you honestly pick a system that will not have a feature for a few years or ever, over one that can best it now? The way MS worded it they are not lying, but I'm not paying more for an ambiguous promise.

[SilentNegotiator]

7th gen didn't have a 50% graphical power difference.

"PlayStation 4's 18 CU graphics core has 50 per cent more raw power than the GPU in the new Microsoft console"
--Eurogamer

It would be pathetic if Ps4 versions did NOT at least have higher framerates.

[adorie]

Rumors are going around that Sony's PS4 tool set is more mature, robust than Microsoft's Xbox One's. It could be the difference in time spent developing these systems.
PS4 = since around 2007 or 2008
Xbox One = Late 2010

That said, up there, If this holds true, then I would expect a noticeable difference in fidelity out the gate.

I guess it's not even a rumor:
http://www.edge-online.com/...

[hazardman]

@frelyer

You say this about the cloud. Yet you have developers saying it can be used for ai, real world dynamics and so on. Yes it may not enhance graphics but all other aspects of gameplay. Just yesterday on this very site i heard audio on what the xbl cloud can do. Go listen to it so you get a better understanding.

[JsonHenry]

Based on the specs I've seen posted and what I know from being a PC gamer/rig builder for almost 2 decades the PS4 has an edge for sure. The faster RAM and 4 extra GCN cores on the GPU should make a small (but noticeable!!!) difference if the game devs were to push both games to their max. If you look at the in game screenshots from the games announced the reason they look so good isn't really the poly count though. It is the fact they have so many gigs of RAM and the consoles will FINALLY be able to run high resolution textures. That alone makes such a huge difference in visual fidelity. You could take older games and throw on high rez textures and it would look just as good as some of the gameplay vids we have seen so far.

[ThyPizzaGod]

Differences or not, i'll still play this game until my glasses rust and eyes burn out.

[quenomamen]

“The Xbox One is a powerful platform, as of now we do not foresee a major difference in on screen result between the PS4 and the Xbox One. Obviously since we are still working on pushing the game on these new consoles, we are still doing R&D."

Translation, we dont want get on MS bad side so well make sure the PS4 version of all our games are equal to the X1 versions, regardless of any advantages the PS4 hardware might have.

[Groo]

Well said

[dcbronco]

Your translation missed the point he was making. He was asked what the differences would be for the Xbox One version. He was speaking specifically to the Xbox One. The R & D part would imply they are doing more work on understanding One and has nothing to do with the PS4. If anything I would read that to mean they want to experiment and see what the cloud offers. Or Kinect. It doesn't mean they won't push the PS4 as far as it can go.

[pete007]

tell us, what advantages are you speaking of? GDDR5? is that? it could have had 16, it wouldnt make any difference, a crap cpu and a mid range gpu wont process all 8 gb of data at a decent rate, cpu/gpu will bottleneck for sure, anyone with a brain knows it, the only advantage is in open worlds, perhaps less pop ups due to faster streaming than harddisk access/decompression ratio, apart that all flat dude

[Sitdown]

Similar in power, but Sony's entry price is lower, while Microsoft is pushing more nongaming features.....

[CrossingEden]

and suddenly touch controls are A ok right fanboys? -_-

[SpinalRemains138]

When they're not the sole method of input, then sure.

Vita kicks ass. Tablet not so much.

I don't see the touchpad being this all empowering thing at all. Just an add on that you will or will nor use. You're not forced to use only touch.

I actually think the ability to push it in and have another button is a bigger deal than the touchpad itself. What will they call it? T and T1?

Nice try though!

[kewlkat007]

"but Microsoft not allowing it."

Wha....

[nosferatuzodd]

well we all know how crook·ed Microsoft are
they are more crooked than a snake with Scoliosis

[YNWA96]

Funny whenever somebody says something not bad about X1, someone here always say's 'but he did not answer the question' , Shut up...

[Triforce079]

He's basically saying all 3 nextgen platforms will be the same.

[ThatCanadianGuy514]

No excuses this time guys.We're not talking about a difference of 512mb split ram vs unified ram.

I should see clear advantages in every PS4 multiplat this go around.Not like i expect them to come out and say as much, since that would be stupid, business wise.

[Blackdeath_663]

only a matter of time i doubt any major developer will come out and make hardware comparisons between the two so early in the consoles life cycle let alone before the consoles are even released. unless ofcourse you chose to take jonathon blow seriously. its pretty obvious the ps4 has the better specs how much of a difference that would translate to in an actual game mid lifecycle of both consoles like i said only time will tell

[Ezz2013]

and this is why gaming is going down not up
they get paid from both sony and MS on those games...they should earn that money

when a system have clear advantages and very easy to program too
3d party dev's should work on it first and take a full advantage of it
and then port their games to the other system and see what hold up and what need to get downgraded in gfx

that's logic

but no 3rd party dev will ever come out and admit the advantages even with the offical specs are out
so they won't lose the money they get

[sway_z]

@Blackdeath (not aimed at you, unless you're guilty), but....

Why wouldn't Jonathan Blow be taken seriously??

Almost everyone on N4G is an expert programmer, with about 20 years experience, and has intricate knowledge of unreleased hardware capability.

Some of you people are seriously delusional, shut up already, quit acting like you know this business, you're just an end user...don't talk out of your depth, know your place.

PS4 is 50% more powerful than X1, how many developers do you need to confirm this??

Rant over! :)