Ubisoft dev on PS4 & Xbox One: 'Loading times on next gen, you can’t be serious'

GTA V was one of the first open-world games we saw completely eliminate loading screens, unless you fast-forwarded a taxi ride, and that game hit current-gen consoles, so shouldn't we expect the same out of games on next-generation systems?

Examiner.com recently had the chance to speak with Rayman Legends' lead game designer Emile Morel about the Xbox One and PS4, and how one Ubisoft engineer believes loading times shouldn't be a part of next-generation games.

[-Foxtrot]

As the games get bigger theres obviously still going to be loading times

What you shouldn't see is loading times from ported games...hell even PS1/PS2/PS3 titles should be brought to the store without loading times, I'm sure they could do it.

[Roccetarius]

Considering The Witcher 3 is going to be pretty massive, it's impressive that they're providing no loading times as well.

[abzdine]

i still think Wii U version is the superior version cause gamepad interaction adds so much.

[vallencer]

As far as the ps1/ps2/ps3 games are concerned, I'm pretty sure they would have to recode all of it to make it work without loading screens. I'm no expert but I think that has to deal more with the engine used then anything else. And lack of optimization.

[Blaze929]

honestly, I thought loading screens and at least overly long loading times would be a thing of the past with PS4 and Xbox One. shame its only gotten worse

[LOL_WUT]

Outlast and tomb raider got loading times very disappointed ;)

[TrueJerseyDevil]

Dead Rising 3's loading times were the worst. The Witcher 3 doesn't have load times if i remember correctly?

[Concertoine]

Dead rising 3 has no load times either.

[TrueJerseyDevil]

yes it does. Also I meant when you die and have to wait 3 minutes to get back in the game

[Concertoine]

Oh, i never died so i wouldnt know if that prompted a loading screen. But the entire map has no loading times like the past games did, which is pretty nice.

[yugovega]

gaming has slowly gotten rid of loading screens in favor of constant updates/patches/installs.

[Subby]

No SSD drive = long load times. Until consoles get rid of mechanical HDDs and optical drives there will always be less than optimal loading times.

[thehitman]

Doubt you played many games then on consoles or at least on Playstation because most of Sony games dont have loading times. I have an SSD on my PC and games still take awhile to load so dont think you know what your talking about. It has to do with technique on how the data is streamed and not how fast your HDD is.

[GentlemenRUs]

Not everyone currently needs the "Overpriced" 1-2TB SSD drives...

I still use HDD's and I've had nothing wrong so far in 10 years working with PC's.

[famoussasjohn]

SSD's have already been proven to not have much of a difference in performance when it comes to being used on a console. On PC, yes of course, but console it was only a few seconds if that of load times. Maybe in the future with a patch to help performance, but I doubt it. I'd take a standard HDD with as much space my console can take than an SSD that will have a fraction of the space for an even higher cost.

[FaSCoRP]

Rayman Legends on xbox 360 performance was awesome. Levels are loaded in about 5-6 seconds and when you came back to menu it is quicker too

[chrissx]

When are writers gonna stop using the phrase next-gen? We are already in that currently x360 ps3 is so last gen

[hazard17remedy]

Well, GTA V have no loading time?! Sorry, but it takes 3-5-10 minutes for loading single player, when i die, it takes 5 or 7 seconds to load, to get online, it takes 3-4 minutes, even to join a job, it takes some time.

Sleeping Dog is WAY more faster than GTA V, but SURE the graphics are WAY worse, the world is an ANT next to San Andreas

[Concertoine]

I remember when long load times were actually scolded. There are games like metroid prime and jak 2 that are not only among the best looking of their day, but also lack loading screens.
I remember playing deus ex human revolution and being shocked at the load times. But no one else seemed to bring it up in reviews... or skyrim's. its like its expected at this point.

[HiGwA]

I remember the first time I played a game without loading times too... It was on the 8-bit NES.

There's a huge difference between No Loading times and HIDDEN loading times... GTA V, Uncharted and many other games have made it a practice to so everything they can to hide loading times from the end user, but they are inherent in disc-based gaming, and will always be there.

GTA- loaded progressively, hence the satellite effect when switching characters was used as a tool to load assets... In Uncharted, the loading times are hidden behind the "Elena, Help me with this door" and, the "Let me lift that for you" animations... They still exist, they just go unseen by the end user using artfully placed cutscenes.

[R00bot]

There's always going to be a loading screen when you first put the game in, but after that there shouldn't be any, even in open world games (they can hide them). After all, they've gotta do something with that 8 gig of RAM. May as well load a heap of the game on, even parts that probably won't be needed in the immediate future.