Even with a good quality control team, it’s common for a game to start with some minor technical issues that need to be fixed with post-release patches. That said, the groundbreaking issues reported by reviewers and players of Assassin’s Creed: Unity go way beyond the sort of minor launch day bugs players have come to expect from a big budget studio release these days.
Publisher Ubisoft acknowledged these issues this morning through a new blog devoted exclusively to live updates on the status of the bedeviled game. Aside from a patch available as early as day one, the blog says the team is “furiously working on fixing bugs and performance issues,” specifically working on fixes for issues including:
- Arno falls through the ground
- Game crashes when joining a co-op session
- Arno gets stuck in hay carts
- Delay in reaching the main menu screen when starting the game
Additionally, the company says it’s “looking into many of the other issues you’ve told us about,” such as frame rate issues, graphics and collision issues, co-op matchmaking issues, and issues credited with in-game Helix credit. currency purchased with real money. Ubisoft says it has “more updates planned” to fix this and other unnamed issues, but it’s unclear if these fixes are currently actively worked on or when they will be available.
Collections of screenshots, GIFs, and videos of the game’s glitches have already become popular memes on the web. Gruesome depictions of faceless characters with floating eyes, teeth, and lips (like the one above) have become the game’s defining visuals in many circles. On the more serious side, technical analysis has revealed specific frame rate issues on the PS4 version of the game.
Ubisoft’s blog post acknowledging these issues has already been flooded with more than 900 comments in a matter of hours, with many users not sugarcoating their response. “This is honestly the most unfinished game I’ve ever bought,” writes one commenter. “What is important and unthinkable is that in this day and age a company releases a defective product!!!” writes another. “As many have said before, Ubi should have waited and released a 100 percent working game!”
Still, a few die-hard fans have been more forgiving. “Don’t get out of the way of Ubisoft, you’re better than that!! Put on your bootstraps and keep moving. This criticism is a painful lesson, but what’s done is done,” one writes.
Despite widespread reports of game-changing issues, the frequency and severity of issues seem to vary from player to player. Ars Technica reviewer Steven Strom counted twice that the game froze or main character Arno “fell through the world” in his roughly 15 hours with the game. While Strom described those issues as “not that common”, he added that “big bugs like this almost seemed ridiculous in a game this good looking.”