Ubisoft Massive: ‘It would be unfair to push PC far away from console’

Allowing the PC version of The Division to massively outclass its console brethren in terms of performance and visual quality would be ‘unfair’, Ubisoft has said.

The open-world multiplayer shooter is being developed at Ubisoft Massive and will be released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One simultaneously.

In a video preview of the game (via NeoGaf), an anonymous dev told Team Epiphany that while creating the PC from the ground-up – rather than just adapting console code – was a boon, the team didn’t allow itself to get carried away with maximising the superior technical ability of the platform.

"One good thing about The Division is we’ve always considered the PC as a separate platform," he said.

"We do have to keep it in check with the consoles; it would be kind of unfair to push it so far away from them. But it’s been good having a dedicated PC build for this game."

The Division features a number of PC-like graphical options on PS4 and Xbox One, allowing players to disable certain visual effects to improve frame-rate – an ability that the developer claimed may be a first on console.

The PC release will still include a number of features exclusive to the hardware, including technology support to boost its visual quality on high-end machines. However, it seems that the game might not look quite as good as it possibly could.