Ubisoft has revealed that complaints of a lack of field of vision (FoV) adjustment in its freshly-launched Far Cry 4 first-person shooter reveal the piratical nature of complainers, rather than the lackadaisical attitudes of its Windows porting team.
Released earlier this week, Far Cry 4 builds on its obviously-named predecessor with a more vibrant world filled with numerous creators for the player to sic on enemies or just shoot in the face. The game is available for previous- and current-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles as well as Windows PCs, but it's users of the latter who have been complaining that Ubisoft Montreal has done a poor job of optimising the game for the PC - in particular by missing off a commonly-requested option to adjust the field of vision to accommodate personal preference and differing display types and aspect ratios.
Except, a clearly joyous Ubisoft Montreal creative director Alex Hutchinson revealed via Twitter, the feature wasn't forgotten at all: it was included in a patch timed to become available at retail release, and which was not reflected by users who downloaded a pirated pre-release build of the game. Put simply: 'PC players! If you're online complaining about the lack of FOV control,' Hutchinson wrote, 'you pirated the game.'
Tricking players into outing themselves as pirates is clever, but not new. Those playing pirated copies of casual sim title Game Dev Tycoon found their in-game creations selling poorly due to piracy - ironic, given that Game Dev Tycoon itself is a blatant 'reboot' of Kairosoft's classic Game Dev Story - while even console games have got in on the act with EarthBound making random encounters more frequent and enemies more difficult if a copied cartridge was detected. The award for most amusing anti-piracy measure, meanwhile, goes to Serious Sam 3 BFE which spawned a gigantic and unkillable pink scorpion-man to chase the gamer down while screaming 'BUY THE GAME' over and over again.
The move has, however, drawn criticism from those who claim they were accused of piracy without merit. In particular, anyone buying a physical copy of the game who installs and plays it without registering with Ubisoft's servers - and thus not receiving the day-one patch which included FoV adjustment - will find the FoV adjustment missing just the same as a pirated copy.
Released earlier this week, Far Cry 4 builds on its obviously-named predecessor with a more vibrant world filled with numerous creators for the player to sic on enemies or just shoot in the face. The game is available for previous- and current-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles as well as Windows PCs, but it's users of the latter who have been complaining that Ubisoft Montreal has done a poor job of optimising the game for the PC - in particular by missing off a commonly-requested option to adjust the field of vision to accommodate personal preference and differing display types and aspect ratios.
Except, a clearly joyous Ubisoft Montreal creative director Alex Hutchinson revealed via Twitter, the feature wasn't forgotten at all: it was included in a patch timed to become available at retail release, and which was not reflected by users who downloaded a pirated pre-release build of the game. Put simply: 'PC players! If you're online complaining about the lack of FOV control,' Hutchinson wrote, 'you pirated the game.'
Tricking players into outing themselves as pirates is clever, but not new. Those playing pirated copies of casual sim title Game Dev Tycoon found their in-game creations selling poorly due to piracy - ironic, given that Game Dev Tycoon itself is a blatant 'reboot' of Kairosoft's classic Game Dev Story - while even console games have got in on the act with EarthBound making random encounters more frequent and enemies more difficult if a copied cartridge was detected. The award for most amusing anti-piracy measure, meanwhile, goes to Serious Sam 3 BFE which spawned a gigantic and unkillable pink scorpion-man to chase the gamer down while screaming 'BUY THE GAME' over and over again.
The move has, however, drawn criticism from those who claim they were accused of piracy without merit. In particular, anyone buying a physical copy of the game who installs and plays it without registering with Ubisoft's servers - and thus not receiving the day-one patch which included FoV adjustment - will find the FoV adjustment missing just the same as a pirated copy.
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