It was already rather heavily implied that the PC version of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate would be showing up later than the console versions, but the game now has an actual release date.
That date is 19 November, which Ubisoft rather cheerfully spins as “less than a month after the [console] versions”. The reasoning, if accurate, seems alright though: “ensuring PC players get the most stable, optimized version of the game on day one”.
While it’s always sad to see the PC version show up later, Assassin’s Creed: Unity (in retrospect) could really have benefited from a delayed launch.
Ubisoft Kiev (who handled Unity on PC) will be doing the same for Syndicate. Mind you the same studio did Assassin’s Creed: Rogue on PC, and that worked out fine. So this one could go either way.
“We have introduced several new improvements to our production pipeline and validation process, which allowed us to focus on polishing, stabilizing and optimizing the PC version very early on in the project,” says Ubisoft Kiev’s Sam Kovalev, which at least sounds encouraging.
The same article says there will be “no locks” on either resolution or frame-rate. It also says that the recommended specs “will target 1080p and 30 FPS”; but since those recommended specs aren’t available yet, it’s hard to know what to make of that.
If they turn out to be relatively undemanding, that would make some sense (and indicate that those with older or weaker PCs can still manage 1080/30fps). If they end up looking pretty high, that wouldn’t bode so well.
