Assassin's Creed: Syndicate creative director promises PC version will "shine"

Ubisoft has developed a reputation over the years for announcing a game's release date and then, a month or so before it arrives, pushing the PC version back by a few weeks. And then maybe a few weeks more. It managed to break that unfortunate habit last year with Assassin's Creed: Unity, which even then really did not go well at all. (In an ironic twist, Unity made it on schedule but Ubisoft later had to delay one of the patches meant to get it into playable shape, because of "quality control" issues.) With Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, it's taking a slightly different approach.

"We've got an internal team that's dedicated to the PC version, and one of the things that I'm happy about is that we're really taking our time with the PC version to really make it shine," Creative Director Marc-Alexis Côté told us at E3. "We want the game to really work well on the PC on day one, which is why it's not the same launch [date] as the Xbox One and the PS4 versions. It will come a bit later in the fall, but I think it will be worth the wait."

"We're working really hard on optimizing the game, making it run smoother on a wider range of PCs," he added, when the question of Unity's abysmal performance on high-end hardware came up. "We're really dedicating a team to working on this and making sure it shines."

You may recall that Ubisoft previously re-dedicated itself to the PC last year, just a few months prior to the launch of Unity. Even so, I maintain hope that it will work out this time—but we'll have to see it for ourselves. Assassins' Creed: Syndicate is coming to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on October 23, and to the PC at some point after that, presumably before the end of 2015.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.