This is why PC comes later as it needs to be retooled, and that includes Xbox One and PS4 too. Ubisoft needed to make sure the current-gen was ”clean” before moving on.
That means the PC, Xbox One and PS4 are ‘up ports’ of the ”master version” developed for Xbox 360 and PS3. It leaves a bad taste, but this is how it’s always been.
Assassin’s Creed has always come late to the PC, with the original languishing for 6 months before eventually releasing for desktops. At the time, PC pirates infamously released a leaked version of the original Altair adventure. Assassin’s Creed 2 and AC: Brotherhood took a little less time at 4 months.
AC: Revelations hit just two weeks after its console launch, and Assassin’s Creed 3 did initially have a simultaneous release schedule but then was pushed back a month. Now we come to Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and it’s arriving about 3 weeks post console launch. Why these delays?
”It all depends on what is the master version,” Jean-Sebastien Decant told Polygon.
If the Xbox 360 was the ‘master’, ”or the PlayStation 3 version was the master version, then we’d need a little bit more time to adapt it for the PC. But we need to finish that other version first,” he explained. Black Flag was developed in parallel for Xbox 360 and PS3 using the Anvil game engine.
”The technology goal we had was for the current-gen,” Decant said. ”You need to finish one and make sure that it’s clean before you can then finish the others.” As the sun sets on the Xbox 360 and PS3, and with Xbox One and PS4 architecture being so much closer to a PC environment, future titles should hopefully be simultaneous in launch.
While current-gen consoles may get the finished experience first, ultimately it’s PC that will win the day. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag releases on Xbox 360 and PS3 October 29th in the US, November 22nd in EU. PC November 19th. Ubisoft has released the PC specifications for Black Flag, and it’s only going to support 64-bit OS, like Watch Dogs.
