While the newly released Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag from Ubisoft has been enjoying widespread critical acclaim from both fans and critics, it seems like the developer itself didn’t really have an easy time developing the title for the current generation console. Admitting as much, Ubisoft staff has indeed confirmed that developing the title on current-generation consoles was ‘nightmarish.’
Recently speaking on a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session, Game Director Ashraf Ismail stated: “Development on both [PS4 and Xbox One] consoles was very smooth since they are both very similar to PCs. Last generation was very difficult and even nightmarish.”
“Both Xbox One and PS4 were easy to deal with and the 1st parties were both there to help us out. The one gray area was understanding both Sony and MS requirements for the consoles. They were trying to figure them out themselves.”
However, the post from Ismail was later scrutinized, as most in the thread were confused by what exactly Ismail meant.
To clarify, Ismail stated: “There seems to be a misunderstanding about me saying ‘Last generation was very difficult and even nightmarish’. I was referring to general game development on the generation switch between Last Gen (PS2 and Xbox) and Current Gen (PS3 and Xbox360).”
“That was a very tough transition, where the PS3 to PS4 was a much smoother and easier one. PS3/Xbox360 development of Black Flag was very smooth as this is the end of the generation and we know the tech inside and out,” he added.
Moreover, as far as implementation of the DualShock 4′s features for the game is concerned, Ismail revealed that the touchpad for the new controller will be “used for scrolling through the map, adding waypoints, zooming etc. Overall it was super smooth to develop on NG [next-gen].”
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, which recently saw release this October for Xbox 360, Wii U and PS3, with versions for PS4 and Xbox One arriving later, features three main cities – Havana, Kingston, and Nassau, which reside under Spanish, British and pirate influence, respectively.
The game, compared to its predecessors, has a more open world feel, with fewer restrictions for the players.
