No 1080p at launch? No problem for Ubisoft Montreal

Typically we like to stay out of the "resolutiongates" that are rooted in console-warring between Xbox One and PlayStation 4. But this visuals-related maneuver caught our eye. Ubisoft communications manager Gary Steinman said on the company's official blog that the PlayStation 4 version of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag would launch at a resolution of 900p, with a patch arriving soon after launch to bump it up to 1080p -- a rather rare occurrence on consoles. Steinman explained that the dev team created the game at an initial 900p in order to lock down a 30 fps rate for when the game shipped, but will continue to work on the 1080p patch. While uncommon on consoles, this is not the first time a next-gen game has got a visual bump after it shipped: The PS4 version of Call of Duty: Ghosts had a day-one 1080p bump (though Activision attributed the initial 720p resolution to a "configuration error"). But there is a more unique element to the upcoming Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag update. Sylvain Trottier, associate producer on the game, said, "Even when we were done with the project, even when we were finished with the certification and everything else, even when most of the engineers had started to work on other projects -- like we always do at Ubisoft -- some of my engineers continued to work on Black Flag and they even developed a brand-new anti-aliasing technique." Both PS4 and Xbox One versions will get the anti-aliasing update, but no word on Xbox One and 1080p.