Nvidia & Ubisoft Form PC Gaming Alliance

bigdogchris

bigdogchris

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When I hear something like PC Gaming Alliance, I think that it's something that will benefit PC gaming in it's entirety. Then when I read that it involves Nvidia, I know it's a one-side, non-gamer friendly profit-based decision. Of course, that's what this is.

Rather than building a new set of open standards and customer service goals that PC publishers and hardware manufacturers agree to, to benefit everyone, Nvidia digs them self further into the proprietary hole.

Several PC titles from Ubisoft will be optimized for Nvidia's GeForce GPUs.

Ubisoft said that it has formed an "alliance" with Nvidia that will see a number of popular PC games optimized for GeForce GPUs. Supported tech will include TXAA antialiasing that provides Hollywood-levels of smooth animation, soft shadows, HBAO+ (horizon-based ambient occlusion), and advanced DX11 tessellation.

"The PC remains one of the world’s most popular gaming platforms, and we’re committed to offering PC players the best possible experience with our games," said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Ubisoft. “Combining Nvidia’s visual computing expertise and the creativity of our development teams will give customers a stunning experience when choosing an Ubisoft game for the PC."

PC games that fall under this "alliance" include Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist, which is slated to arrive on August 20. The Digital Deluxe version is already made available in the new "Splinter Cell Blacklist" bundles featuring cards based on GeForce GTX 660, 660 Ti, 670, 680, 760, 770 or 780 GPUs. The Digital Deluxe Edition throws in two extra single-player and co-op maps, five pieces of "sneaktastic" gear, five bonus stealth suits, and five weapons. A code for Splinter Cell: Conviction is also included at no extra charge.

Additional Ubisoft PC games optimized for GeForce GPUs include Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag and Watch Dogs, which arrive on October 30 and November 15 respectively. Ubisoft said that Nvidia's Developer Technology Team worked closely with the developers of each game to create GeForce-optimized "worlds that deliver new heights of realism and immersion."

"PC gaming is stronger than ever and Ubisoft understands that PC gamers demand a truly elite experience – the best resolutions, the smoothest frame rates and the latest gaming breakthroughs," said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at Nvidia. "We’ve worked closely with Ubisoft’s incredibly talented creative teams throughout the development process to incorporate our technologies and deliver the most immersive and visually spectacular game worlds imaginable."

The news arrives after AMD revealed its Never Settle Forever bundle that allows customers to pick games from a limited library of popular titles, depending on the Radeon card they buy. The program provides three tiers -- Bronze, Silver and Gold – that grants one, two or three free games respectively.

AMD is also supplying APUs for the upcoming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which should be incredibly lucrative cash cows for a company that's struggling to gain its footing in a declining desktop market. AMD has also entered the cloud gaming market with its Radeon Sky line of server-side single-and dual-slot cards.
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SOURCE
 
Ok whatever. Same old shit. Probably a bad move by nvidia. I have way more respect for them than ubicrap.

Now if ubisoft would kill uplay and just use steam and retail discs....
 
Isn't this overall a bad decision by Ubisoft? I can see why it would benefit nVidia, but if they are going to make cross platform games like say: Splinter Cell or Assassins Creed (the two games listed actually in the quote...), wouldn't optimization for nVidia GPUs be a waste of their time if they have to also develop and specialize for AMD ones when they port them to XB1/PS4/Wii U?
 
no because nvidia is paying them and sending engineers to help them, so ubisoft makes out great.

Kudos to nvidia for still giving #%$ about pc gaming and thier tech.
 
Interesting as Watch Dog's was/is supposed to be an AMD Never Settle Bundle game in the future.

UnknownSouljer said:
Isn't this overall a bad decision by Ubisoft? I can see why it would benefit nVidia, but if they are going to make cross platform games like say: Splinter Cell or Assassins Creed (the two games listed actually in the quote...), wouldn't optimization for nVidia GPUs be a waste of their time if they have to also develop and specialize for AMD ones when they port them to XB1/PS4/Wii U?
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So your brilliant idea is to make their games not run or at least not be optimized on half of the world's gaming PCs? :rolleyes:

If the games run poorly on AMD I would not be surprised considering that is what many of the previous Never Settle games have done in regards to Nvidia (Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, ect.). I would prefer if all games were optimized to run on all PCs... maybe I am alone here.
 
Flogger23m said:
So your brilliant idea is to make their games not run or at least not be optimized on half of the world's gaming PCs? :rolleyes:

If the games run poorly on AMD I would not be surprised considering that is what many of the previous Never Settle games have done in regards to Nvidia (Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, ect.). I would prefer if all games were optimized to run on all PCs... maybe I am alone here.
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In no way did I state anything about games not running on nVidia hardware. You're making an awfully huge leap in response to what I said.
 
spaceman said:
Ok whatever. Same old shit. Probably a bad move by nvidia. I have way more respect for them than ubicrap.

Now if ubisoft would kill uplay and just use steam and retail discs....
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uPlay is basically Ubisoft trying to fight back against Steam, much like many movie/TV companies are trying to fight against Netflix. End result? No one is happy.
 
"PC gaming is stronger than ever and Ubisoft understands that PC gamers demand a truly elite experience – the best resolutions, the smoothest frame rates and the latest gaming breakthroughs," said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at Nvidia. "We’ve worked closely with Ubisoft’s incredibly talented creative teams throughout the development process to incorporate our technologies and deliver the most immersive and visually spectacular game worlds imaginable."
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Yes, we have seen how true that is:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/08/26/splinter_cell_blacklist_image_quality_video_card_review
 
And I thought they hated PC gaming? :rolleyes:

When it makes a comeback, you guys just go a complete 180 huh? Too bad we gamers have longer memories than you may think.
 
nerdydesi said:
And I thought they hated PC gaming? :rolleyes:

When it makes a comeback, you guys just go a complete 180 huh? Too bad we gamers have longer memories than you may think.
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Don't worry mate...in the next month or two, Ubisoft will be back to calling us all pirates again. When "next-gen" (more like "2-years-ago-gen") hits, Ubi will be far more consistent with its hatred of PC gamers.
 
ISTR there having been similar alliances before. They never last very long.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
Isn't this overall a bad decision by Ubisoft? I can see why it would benefit nVidia, but if they are going to make cross platform games like say: Splinter Cell or Assassins Creed (the two games listed actually in the quote...), wouldn't optimization for nVidia GPUs be a waste of their time if they have to also develop and specialize for AMD ones when they port them to XB1/PS4/Wii U?
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Flogger23m said:
So your brilliant idea is to make their games not run or at least not be optimized on half of the world's gaming PCs? :rolleyes:

If the games run poorly on AMD I would not be surprised considering that is what many of the previous Never Settle games have done in regards to Nvidia (Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, ect.). I would prefer if all games were optimized to run on all PCs... maybe I am alone here.
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we're just talking about a few token features here, for addon value that not 5% of their userbase will ever see, none of the twimtbp features in sc:blacklist even work for older than 6 series cards. don't read too much into it, basically all they want to say is we now all of a sudden give a shit about pc gaming, pc gamers everywhere should forgive us for treating you like dogshit on the curb.

nvidia just happens to be the one doing interesting things with their tech, brand is inconsequential in this context imo. 99% of their implementation is going to be platform agnostic, 'optimisation' happens more for standards here than platform. even more so for the xb1/ps4 generation hardware when these methods are going to be much less platform specific.
 
I wonder, when AMD was adding TressFX most people were praising it, like the true gods would return... Now Nvidia is doing the same with adding effects from their cards to the games, and people are "waaah, we want it for all games, not for just those optimized, waaah, nvidia you so evil, it destroys PC gaming".

I know that brand loyalty is strange animal, but folks, at least show some objectivity, and not if "my favourite company is doing thing x, it's perfect, but when competition. Of my favored company is doing thing x it's destroying pc gaming".
 
ikarinokami said:
no because nvidia is paying them and sending engineers to help them, so ubisoft makes out great.

Kudos to nvidia for still giving #%$ about pc gaming and thier tech.
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PC Gaming is all Nvidia has left. Of course they are going to put a few eggs in that basket.
 
Yeah, sounds like a bad move all around to me as well.

NVidia gets bad PR from this because everyone hates Ubi.

Ubi ends up with games that are lop-sided on performance between GPU brands... and everyone still hates them. None of the games listed in this program are ones I want to play anyways, except maybe Watch Dogs... we'll see.
 
KazeoHin said:
PC Gaming is all Nvidia has left. Of course they are going to put a few eggs in that basket.
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amm no.
nvidia didnt need consoles.

AMD according to there reports at best will make 80 to 90 million from the deal.

the opportunity cost make it not worth it for nvidia. getting logan out time could be worth billions or hundred of millions.

project maxwell again has the potention to hundred of millions to billions in these sectors nvidia has created for itself.

unlike amd, nvidia is a healthy company and has always supported PC gaming.

AMD on the other hand is in serious finicial trouble, they needed consoles, they need all the revenue they can get. If I were running Nvidia i wouldnt take engineers off either logan or maxwell for 80-90 million at best, thats just silly.
 
KazeoHin said:
PC Gaming is all Nvidia has left. Of course they are going to put a few eggs in that basket.
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Actually no - they have mobile market, they have large professional market, PC gaming is just a part of their income structure.
 
MorgothPl said:
I wonder, when AMD was adding TressFX most people were praising it, like the true gods would return... Now Nvidia is doing the same with adding effects from their cards to the games, and people are "waaah, we want it for all games, not for just those optimized, waaah, nvidia you so evil, it destroys PC gaming".

I know that brand loyalty is strange animal, but folks, at least show some objectivity, and not if "my favourite company is doing thing x, it's perfect, but when competition. Of my favored company is doing thing x it's destroying pc gaming".
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TressFX, to my knowledge, is not locked to a specific platform like PhysX and other Nvidia initiatives. That is the difference.
 
TwistedAegis said:
TressFX, to my knowledge, is not locked to a specific platform like PhysX and other Nvidia initiatives. That is the difference.
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the difference is, nvidia being upfront about it when they choose to promote platform exclusive features. on the surface it may seem "right" for amd to claim what they're doing is platform agnostic, but in practice it doesn't work that way at all. what developers get are methods that can be implemented elsewhere, but no support for them whatsoever. so the end result is still apps that are hobbled for one platform or the other just the same. any nv users trying to run tressfx in tomb raider can attest to this, it was completely unplayable until nvidia got a chance to update their own drivers for it. this equates to weeks of bad publicity for such "platform agnostic" features, if they ever completely get fixed at all.

there is literally zero difference between one or the other, if devs have no control over it or don't do the work of supporting both platforms.

I have infinitely more respect for nvidia as a company doing their own thing, while also keeping up with these shenanigans, rather than playing with standards politics to mislead people. either it works or it doesn't, no half ambiguous bullshit that may or may not get patched out on either end.

madFive said:
Ubi ends up with games that are lop-sided on performance between GPU brands...
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from observation this kind of sentiment is a direct result of the way amd chooses to promote their features. ambiguity to me does way more damage than exclusive features ever could. it's the difference between an [H] review going "well it ran like ass, we'll see how it does when we get the updated drivers", and "A only runs on B, so that's what we tested." there's nothing uncertain about that, and you know exactly what you're getting. standard features work on standard hardware, while you know exactly what you need for any extras.
 
ikarinokami said:
amm no.
nvidia didnt need consoles.

AMD according to there reports at best will make 80 to 90 million from the deal.

the opportunity cost make it not worth it for nvidia. getting logan out time could be worth billions or hundred of millions.

project maxwell again has the potention to hundred of millions to billions in these sectors nvidia has created for itself.

unlike amd, nvidia is a healthy company and has always supported PC gaming.

AMD on the other hand is in serious finicial trouble, they needed consoles, they need all the revenue they can get. If I were running Nvidia i wouldnt take engineers off either logan or maxwell for 80-90 million at best, thats just silly.
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Doing a quick search shows that the PS3 recently outsold the Xbox 360, with 77-something million sales. The Xbox 360 itself sold 77-something million. Assuming the PS4 and Xbox One sell as well as their predecessors, and add in the sales of the Wii U, we're looking at well over 150 million sales. I assume they are making more than $1 per GPU.

I doubt the R&D is very costly as the hardware is mostly based off of off the shelf technology. In summary, I think they will make well over $80-90.
 
Flogger23m said:
Doing a quick search shows that the PS3 recently outsold the Xbox 360, with 77-something million sales. The Xbox 360 itself sold 77-something million. Assuming the PS4 and Xbox One sell as well as their predecessors, and add in the sales of the Wii U, we're looking at well over 150 million sales. I assume they are making more than $1 per GPU.

I doubt the R&D is very costly as the hardware is mostly based off of off the shelf technology. In summary, I think they will make well over $80-90.
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There's an opportunity cost to the design and manufacture of large scale chip rollouts. You have to devote engineers, R&D, factories, etc to make those 150 million chips. Its not just about how much you make per chip, its about what it costs you because you aren't making something else.
 
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