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Tag: Virtual reality in fiction

  • Assassin’s Creed Bug From 2020 Is Finally Getting Fixed

    Assassin’s Creed Bug From 2020 Is Finally Getting Fixed

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    Image: Ubisoft

    I know this isn’t the most pressing issue facing the video game community, but I just think it’s funny: someone at Ubisoft has finally got around to fixing a bug that has impacted one particular version of Assassin’s Creed on one specific platform that has been bugging people (or maybe just one person?) for years.

    We actually covered this back in November 2020, when as part of kicking the new console’s tyres it was discovered that the PlayStation 4 version of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate had some weird shadow issues if you were trying to play it on the PlayStation 5. It was known, so much so that anyone trying to start the game got a prompt that said:

    You might experience unexpected game behavior while playing this PS4 game on your PS5 console.

    Still, like I said, not a huge issue. But still an issue, one that would have been logged somewhere at Ubisoft, far enough down the list of priorities that it didn’t get fixed at the time, but on the list nonetheless, waiting to be tackled by somebody, anybody, whenever they had the time.

    That time is this week. The series’ Twitter account posted this earlier today, saying that an update be released tomorrow specifically targeting this very bug:

    We’re happy to announce that Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will receive an update tomorrow, February 23, on PlayStation 4. This update will provide a fix for flickering issues when playing on PlayStation 5.

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    Thank you for reminding me to dig this out and replay it. Not because I want to enjoy it flicker-free—I never had it on PS4, I have it on PC!—but because this is a deeply underappreciated entry in the series, and one I’d love to revisit in the wake of the more recent games being just a bit too much.

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    Luke Plunkett

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  • Facebook’s VR Division Lost $13.72 Billion In 2022

    Facebook’s VR Division Lost $13.72 Billion In 2022

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    Image: Kotaku / Shutterstock / Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images)

    Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is having a decent day today after beating revenue and user activity forecasts for its final fiscal quarter of 2022. But its VR division isn’t helping the company make money. In fact, it’s costing the company billions in losses.

    While it’s true that Meta’s stock is rising in after-hours trading today after sharing fairly positive fourth-quarter financial results, its VR division, Reality Labs, didn’t have such positive news to share, as it’s continuing to blow through money at a shocking rate. Today, the company confirmed it lost over $4 billion to VR and metaverse development in its final quarter of 2022. And in total, it lost well over $13 billion in 2022 trying (and failing) to build a metaverse people would flock to.

    In comparison, Meta brought in $32.1 billion in revenue across all departments and apps.

    As reported by Decrypt.co, Meta’s Reality Labs only brought in $727 million in revenue in the closing months of 2022. That’s not great when compared to the billions spent on the division in the same year, but it’s also worse than you might think. That figure is down 17% from the division’s revenue in the same period of 2021. Ouch.

    Remember too that Facebook’s flagship metaverse software, Horizon Worlds, has basically been a giant flop, with reports that most worlds inside of it are empty and barely played. Not only that, but the company’s own employees barely use it, with a leaked internal memo showing that staff at Meta don’t enjoy using Horizons Worlds because it’s riddled with bugs and other quality issues.

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    Really the only big success story from Reality Labs is the Oculus Quest 2 headset, which was seen by many as an affordable alternative to pricey PC and console VR headsets and was also completely standalone. But in July Meta raised the price of that affordable headset by $100, with the 128GB model now costing $400 and the 256GB version now going for $500.

    In November 2022, Meta laid off 11,000 employees, blaming covid, “macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss.” Zuckerberg blamed himself for the layoffs, but conveniently didn’t mention in his announcement of layoffs how much money the company is continuing to spent on VR and metaverse development. Over the past few years the company has spent tens of billions of dollars trying to make a VR-powered metaverse a thing.

    And now, in February 2023, following massive layoffs and continued losses, it only has an unappealing and empty PlayStation Home clone to show for all its troubles.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Assassin’s Creed Comic May Have Hidden Message From Frustrated Artist

    Assassin’s Creed Comic May Have Hidden Message From Frustrated Artist

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    Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – The Converts
    Image: Ubisoft / Kotaku

    This year the Assassin’s Creed franchise turns 15 years old. In that time, the franchise has expanded into multiple games, mobile spin-offs, books, movies, shorts, and more. It’s a big, complicated universe that involves historical conspiracies, shadowy cults, and ancient aliens. And those ancient aliens, the Isu, have a complex language, and it’s that language that seems to have frustrated an artist working on a newly released Assassin’s Creed comic.

    Since 2007’s original Assassin’s Creed adventure, each installment in the franchise has added more and more lore. At this point, it’s a batshit-wild universe and one key part of the madness are ancient beings, later named the Isu, who were technologically advanced, lived on Earth like gods long ago, and were wiped out 77,000 years ago following a war with ancient humans who they’d enslaved. Anyway, the Isu created all sorts of gizmos and trinkets that, thousands of years later, are still being sought after by humans obsessed with power. And many of these items are covered in the Isu language, which was largely untranslated until 2021, when fans finally cracked it.

    But apparently working with this language is a pain in the ass, as seemingly revealed by a bit of text in the recently released comic book, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – The Converts. At one point, we see a close-up of an ancient Isu tablet of some kind which is covered in the ancient aliens’ language. And translated, part of the text reads says:

    “If somese as esplasi how to write this shit it would be muc appreiated”

    It’s pretty easy to see what this person was likely trying to say using the Isu language, even if it has a few mistakes. The message was likely meant to say:

    “If someone can explain how to write this shit it would be much appreciated.”

    This funny little message was first spotted by the Assassin’s Creed super fans over at Access The Animus—the same people who first cracked the Isu language a few years back. They also spotted “multiple bits of incorrect Isu language” in the comic, suggesting the artists or writers involved weren’t given enough information or direction about the Isu language, hence the mistakes and frustration.

    Kotaku has reached out to Ubisoft, the comic book writer, and the artists.

    While some fans had a good laugh at this angry Easter egg, others were upset that the creators behind the comic book didn’t consult fan guides and translation tools before working on the book. However, it should be noted that it would be very weird for an official Ubisoft-approved Assassin’s Creed comic to rely on fan translations, assuming the people behind the comic even knew of that work. (Which would explain why they included this Isu Easter egg at all: Maybe they didn’t expect anyone else to read it!)

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    Personally, as a big fan of Assassin’s Creed and its wild lore, I totally get how frustrating it must be to try and tell stories within that universe. It’s fun to experience the mess from the outside looking in, but working on it is likely a pain in the ass at times and I don’t begrudge an artist for sneaking in a little jab at how annoying and absurd it must be.

     

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    Zack Zwiezen

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