Assassin’s Creed developers claim both PS3 and Xbox 360 are problematic
The developer of Assassin’s Creed, one of the most hotly anticipated games on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, has come out and criticized both consoles and more specifically how hard certain aspects of developing for them are.
Patrice Desilets, the game’s creative director, told Pro G that Ubisoft Montreal is struggling with memory problems on both consoles. It seems that neither the PS3 or the Xbox 360 are much of a joy to develop for, and the company is facing some stiff challenges to complete the game for either.
The Xbox 360′s DVD disc just doesn’t cut it when compared to the PS3′s Blu-ray format, and Ubisoft Montreal is facing a real challenge to fit everything they want to include in the game on to one solitary disc. To fit five languages and all the data required for a kick ass game such as this seems to need more than the 8Gb which is available to Xbox 360 games developers.
The PS3 isn’t without it’s issues either, as although the expansive Blu-ray discs means there’s plenty of room for the game data, Patrice Desilets claims there are memory complications developing for Sony’s great hope too. In fact it’s so bad that the company has had to draft in help from both Microsoft and Sony “to make sure the game has the same quality on both systems”.
PS3 owners will be happy to hear that they at least won’t be getting a poor quality port from the Xbox 360 as Patrice added:
“The PS3 version is as good as the 360 version. We’ve been showing the PS3 version at E3 this year, but we’ve done a lot of events and it’s just easier for us and for people from the press to have a 360. But the versions are the same, basically.”
So there’s some good news for PS3 owners (at last) but Xbox 360 owners won’t be comfortable that the DVD disc space issue has reared it’s ugly head yet again. We’ve already heard that Unreal Tournament 3 is likely to have less maps than both the PS3 and PC versions due to a lack of memory space, and now another developer says one DVD just isn’t enough. And remember that this is at a relatively early stage of the next gen consoles lifespans.
In five years time, it’s likely that developers will be pushing the envelope much more than they are now, and that requires some serious data space. Short term the Xbox 360 is doing fine, but I can’t help feeling this will become more of an issue as time goes on, and games improve.
Maybe Blu-ray could be the PS3′s saving grace after all? Let’s face it, it needs to have something going for it, as at the moment it’s not exactly winning the day with either consumers or games developers.
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28 Responses to “Assassin’s Creed developers claim both PS3 and Xbox 360 are problematic”
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October 12th, 2007
It would be nice to have a reason to buy a PS3 version of a multiplatform game over the 360 version. Lord knows I feel guilty every time I see that big beautiful machine sitting in the corner with that little red LED shining all lonely and stuff.
October 12th, 2007
Compression technology will make this a non-issue for the 360 in the future. So UbiSoft is trying to imply that this game is bigger than Oblivion? I doubt it. Just seems like more spin to try to keep from alienating either company. Maybe UbiSoft should have asked for help from EA (they seem to have it figured out).
October 13th, 2007
Compression technology won’t make this go away. It comes at a cost. The console will be doing work it would rather not be doing, and that impacts other areas of the game. And the console won’t be getting any faster until a new version comes out.
So the console that can hold the least compressed video will win.
October 13th, 2007
Multicore is the issue..it makes the software developers have to think about using memory and processes more efficiently instead of just waisting resources. The old days of just creating a bigger faster processor are gone and the old days of developing games efficiently (zx spectrum, c64) are back, although they look and play a little better lol.
The architecture for the PS3 is future proof, the 360 not so and the wii, well its found its own niche.
Once developers get used to the PS3 I think we are going to see some serious games being released and I think the PS3 Killzone 2 and Ratchet and Clank are just the start.
October 13th, 2007
Look at the end of the day this is going to be a non issue. Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 will have a ton of really great games PERIOD. The true question is which one best suits you as a gamer. I love the 360 and have been playing the hell out of it since launch. The games are more my taste because I’M AMERICAN!!! I don’t care about singstar, katimari, dance dance, or any of that style of japan based games. I do however love Capcom and so far they and many of the other developers have been kind to the 360. With games like Mass Effect, Bioshock, Gears of War, Ace Combat, Army of 2, Kane and Lynch, COD 4, and Halo3 I’m not starving for content. I believe the biggest problem facing the PS3 this gen has been the cocky ass Sony PR teams. I mean seriously when was the last time the most spec superior console won anyway? Not to mention they went from calling the 360 “xbox 1.5″ to claiming “hey our graphics match the 360 on this game” WTF! The memory issue on the PS3 is just as big a deal as dvd9. Remember when UBI said Splinter Cell conviction couldn’t be handled on the PS3, it was because of the memory. I’m not here for a flame war I’m just saying the developers are going to have issues on both but who cares as long as we get great games.
October 13th, 2007
In five years, there will be a new Xbox.
What makes you think Xbox 360 will still be around in 5 years? It’s already been out for 2 years. When was the last time Microsoft had a product that has a 5-year life cycle or more? Xbox? Windows? Office?
It rarely if ever happened. That’s just not Microsoft’s business model.
P.S. The “future” is not PS3. The future is newer, better consoles.
October 13th, 2007
get is this way…. is MS starts to let developers do Multi DVD game… it becomes more and more easy.. infact just a 2 DVD game wud be so damn cool and open many new stuffs! I hope MS realy gives this chance to developers. On teh other hand PS3′s memory problem needs to be solved in a far complicated way, that wud need new design ideas: its a very crude way to solve things. watever the way, X360 realy did the best job for all the gamers up until now, ppl shud respect that. dont forget, MS suports HD-DVD too, although i dont want games to go HD-DVD whch wuc make ppl to MUST have that unit, but rather multi-dvd games! i wont ahve any issues swicting disks once in a while, i do that a lot when i play diff games anyway… please MS, do get this going: support Multi-DVD games!
October 13th, 2007
I’ll agree with saquib on multi dvd’s but not for the same reason. I think that there is an underlined precieved added value when a game has 2-3 discs. I know way back in ps 1 days that it was an added bonus. The whole Blueray thing is more complicated than oh it has a 25 gig capacity. You see the PS3 is an early design player so it reads data off of blueray discs much slower so the idea all that space is truly freed up space is a missconception. To prove this point look at all of the so called 25+ gig games Lair, Heavonly Sword, RFOM, and upcoming RaC. Each one is short so what was really gained? 7:1 sound, ok how many people even have a set up that uses that? HD cgi rendered cut scenes, who gives a funk about cutscenes? Lair and HS have so many of them it was like they were trying to strech the games out. In hindsight they probably were. How about this one, the Darkness came in at 7-8 gigs on the 360 yet on the PS3 is was 18. So what did the PS3 version have that the 360 didn’t? How about no motion blur, glitchy framerate, and full movies/videos on small tvs spread throughout the game let me just say wwwoooowwww. I would take a better framerate, achievements, and motion blur over that anyday and did actually. The ps 3 needs data to be uncompressed to help with buffering plain and simple the only problem there is the memory constraints haven’t been conquered yet. That could explain why almost all PS3 games have framerate issues I’m talking to you Mobile Suit Gundam, HS, and Lair especially Lair FTG!
October 13th, 2007
“I would take a better framerate, achievements, and motion blur over that anyday and did actually. The ps 3 needs data to be uncompressed to help with buffering plain and simple the only problem there is the memory constraints haven’t been conquered yet. That could explain why almost all PS3 games have framerate issues”
How abou colin Mcrae DIRT? Worse frame rate on the 360? The 360 is far from perfect as some people seem to think. As time goes on the frame rate issues (which arent that noticable by the way e.g.Ghost recon only judders durin cut scenes) will disappear.
October 13th, 2007
[...] of memory space, and now another developer s ays one DVD just isn’t enough…. source: Assassin’s Creed developers claim both PS3 and Xbox 360 are problematic, [...]
October 13th, 2007
So…
Is the PS3 version better or the X360 version?
cuase it sound like the game could be great on one system but they may not make the game that good just because the other console can make it, and the priority is the game look the same in both consoles.
October 13th, 2007
Um hello who ever wrote this you are dumb they only played assassins creed on the xbox 360 at E3 they didnt show it all on the ps3 really I didnt even see them go to the ps3 event. Look they played the demo that they made on the xbox 360 and then they left, all sony was showing was there killzone game that will probably get delayed like everything else they get.
October 13th, 2007
[...] Assassin's Creed Developers Claim Both PS3 And Xbox 360 Are – TECH.BLORGE.com PSX ExtremeAssassin's Creed developers claim both PS3 and Xbox 360 are TECH.BLORGE.com, Australia – 20 hours ago By Dave Parrack The developer of Assassin's Creed, one of the most hotly anticipated games on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, has come out and criticized both 02:42 360 DVD causing issues for Assassin's Creed 0 Xboxic Unique PS3/360 Hurdles For Assassin's Creed PSX Extreme Video games: the next generation BBC News Digital Spy – bit-tech.net all 36 news articles Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
October 13th, 2007
Dirt was started on the PS3 and like most of the 360 to PS3 games there are things lost in translation. Assasins creed however to my knowledge has only been demoed on the 360. Hell I remember when it was a PS3 exclusive and under the table there was a 360 running it so Hah! They will make it work on both but I expect the PS3 will have A.I. issues mark my words.
October 13th, 2007
Is loading a compressed file and decompressing it inside the console faster than loading a large file directly from disc?
my assumption would be that the computer can calculate a lot faster than it can read and copy a disc, which is limited by how fast it can spin the disc and copy data to memory.
The slowest process determines the speed of the entire process. And to me reading the disc and moving data across from disc to memory is the slowest process. Decompression is merely recalculating a files true make up. Which is lightning fast.
I mean, its the whole reason why we send and download compressed files…its faster to decompress a file than to download an uncompressed file.
October 13th, 2007
I also think multiple dvds is not an issue. I cannot sit through an entire campaign from begginging to end…
A single dvd disc can hold 10 to 15+ hours of gaming. Spread that throughout the week with toilet breaks, eating, sleeping, watching television, work, family life, social life, sex life…
There are a million things that take you away from finishing a games campaign. Changing a dvd over to finish a game should not be a big deal.
If changing a dvd over after 30-40 hours of straight gaming is too much of a big deal….then it probly isnt healthy for you to be gaming at all….
I dont see a big deal in a double disc or even triple disc game… you only ever play a game a few hours at a time…. making playing through half of one disc more than enough for one day…. getting up to change a disc after 5 hours is probly a blessing more than a curse….
October 13th, 2007
Future proofing…… does not exist…… nothing is future proof. Unless the PS3 is the be all and end all of gaming over eternity then sure, point taken, but the PS3 will be lucky to be the greatest advance in gaming over the next 1/2 decade.
It is foolish to market the PS3 for a 10 year life cycle when things are changing every 2 years in technology.
The internet might become faster than direct access to disc drives making online marketplace the way to go…..flash memory might replace the optical disc altogether…..making the usb slot in the PS3/360 the more favourable means of delivering games…..
Im not saying it will happen next year…but 10 years…anything can happen….again…future proof….impossible.
October 14th, 2007
Blue Dragon for the 360 has 3 disks and is such a better game for it. I only see this being an issue for sandbox games.
October 15th, 2007
Sorry to burst your bubble Dave, but I own a PS3 and it’s badass. Far superior to my roommates 360. Better check with ‘consumers’ a bit more before making statements like that.
November 7th, 2007
If it wasnt for the DVD space issues on the 360 this would be coming out on the 9th. As far as the problems on both consules go… If a company has trouble with one Xbox DVD issue, then the company has to release bogus claims that they are having trouble with both… Since Ubisoft is bound to both PS3 and Xbox, thay just cant say “Oh Xbox sucks” that would be a breech for future games and blu ray and sony would get another nod from the consumer…….
November 12th, 2007
[...] month, Ubisoft, maker of the hotly anticipated Assassins Creed, complained about how hard it was to develop for the PS3. On this evidence it seems that Epic are just better games developers, or maybe just more used to [...]
November 12th, 2007
[...] month, Ubisoft, maker of the hotly anticipated Assassins Creed, complained about how hard it was to develop for the PS3. On this evidence it seems that Epic are just better games developers, or maybe just more used to [...]
November 20th, 2007
Call the PS3 the “future” or whatever, it is definitely not “today.” Why would anybody with any common sense buy a PS3 now, when there are absolutely no great exclusive titles for it? The price will drop, it already has, and I expect the premium version of the PS3 to dip as low as $250. Even if it were to only go as low as $299 but with great games, then I’ll go buy it. Developers keep saying that “once the developers figure out the PS3″ then we’ll begin to see truly great games. Well then, why buy the PS3 now? Is there going to be some sort of shortage? Is the PS3 gonna be so awesome that everyone on the whole planet will rush out to get one and then Sony would just stop manufacturing the PS3? It makes no sense. Sony has nothing to show for today and insists that the best is yet to come. To me that means “don’t buy the PS3 now, wait another year or two.”
November 20th, 2007
“Sorry to burst your bubble Dave, but I own a PS3 and it’s badass. Far superior to my roommates 360. Better check with ‘consumers’ a bit more before making statements like that.”
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LOL. Great argument there, buddy. Now go home and fold some proteins.
December 24th, 2007
[...] Assassin's Creed developers claim both PS3 and Xbox 360 are … The developer of Assassin’s Creed, one of the most hotly anticipated games on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, has come out and criticized both consoles and more specifically how hard certain aspects of developing for them are. … [...]
January 6th, 2008
My disc won’t read. I cleaned the head got a new disc and my 360 won’t read the disc. The game is soooo much fun but I can’t play it!! Am I alone? My xBox plays everything else
February 3rd, 2008
[...] Last year we heard from Ubisoft about how Assassins Creed was being held up by the difficulties the company were having trying to develop the game for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. While it seems that was a memory and disc space issue, companies are still seeming to have problems getting to grasp with developing on the PS3. [...]
July 31st, 2008
[...] occasions. Back in October of 2007, the developer of Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft Montreal complained of difficulties in development. Ex-Guitar Hero programmer Jason Booth also stuck the knife in, explaining that while the PS3 may [...]