PC Watch Dogs players have been flocking to download a fan-created fix from modder TheWorse, which edits several config files in order to restore the game’s graphics to their E3 2012 settings.
Now developer Ubisoft has released a statement denying that they downgraded the graphics of the PC version, and warning that installing unofficial mods could have ”various negative impacts” on performance and stability.
“The dev team is completely dedicated to getting the most out of each platform, so the notion that we would actively downgrade quality is contrary to everything we’ve set out to achieve. We test and optimize our games for each platform on which they’re released, striving for the best possible quality,” Ubisoft write on the Watch Dogs website.
”The PC version does indeed contain some old, unused render settings that were deactivated for a variety of reasons, including possible impacts on visual fidelity, stability, performance and overall gameplay quality. Modders are usually creative and passionate players, and while we appreciate their enthusiasm, the mod in question (which uses those old settings) subjectively enhances the game’s visual fidelity in certain situations but also can have various negative impacts. Those could range from performance issues, to difficulty in reading the environment in order to appreciate the gameplay, to potentially making the game less enjoyable or even unstable.”
I think they mean more unstable. Even unmodded, players have been encountering various technical bugs and problems with the PC version of Watch Dogs. Ubisoft have at least acknowledged these issues, and are working on a patch to rectify them, set to roll out in the next few days.