Delayed just one day for most players, Patch 4 for Ubisoft's premiere fall 2014 release, Assassin's Creed Unity, is out today for Xbox One and PS4 (PC later this week). It's massive.


Ubisoft explained the need for a super-sized patch on the official Assassin's Creed website:

Part of the team's effort to enhance frame rate for players involves replacing and updating portions of the Paris city map where we are seeing issues. This explains the large size of this title update (6.7 GB). However, since a large portion of the patch replaces existing files the net increase to the game's overall size will be less than 6.7 GB.


This new patch addresses just about everything you can think of, from the game's performance in singleplayer to multiplayer matchmaking and more. (Full patch notes below.)

Ubisoft has patched Unity a few times since the game's launch on November 11 launch. While many of the issues I've had with it (I reviewed the game) had nothing to do with technical performance, the game's been a technical mess for others.

Ubisoft apologized for the game's rough performance late last month. Part of that apology was a promise to give a free game to anyone who had paid for the game's Season Pass. Today, Ubi reps said that the free game offer would be made available by Christmas. It also sounds like the start of Club Competitions, a feature that would have groups of Unity players in some way competing with one another, has been backburnered in lieu of work on performance patches.


Company reps have repeatedly pushed back talk about Unity's undated Dead Kings expansion, which will now be free to all owners of the game. The company has said that it was prioritizing getting the game to run well for more players. Dead Kings has been in development primarily at Ubisoft Montepellier, a team we don't think was heavily involved in making the main game.

Here are the details of Patch 4. This Patch is rolling out to PS4 now, and will be available for Xbox One players later today (December 16). PC players can expect the patch later this week. Patch 4 release date: December 16th Platforms: PS4, Xbox One PC coming later this week. Size: 6.7 GB Stability, Performance and Save Game Fixed numerous random crashes both on Campaign and Coop

Implemented multiple optimizations and fixes to improve overall performance

Fixed save issue caused by the companion app on the main menu (loss of data)

Fixed save issue caused by contacts list (crash occurring). Users should now have access to save Gameplay (navigation, fight, stealth) Fixed various navigation issues

Fixed issues with lock picking chests

Fixed additional haystack issues Character, AI and Crowd Fixed various character, crowd station and NPC issues Online, Matchmaking, Connectivity and Replication Fixed various matchmaking and connection issues both in matches and when starting a match.

Fixed various issues with voice chat

Fixed join-in-progress issues

Fixed various replication issues between host and clients

Fixed issues with player rank and COOP/heist rewards

Fixed issues with Helix credits

Fixed issues with the My Club feature Menus and HUD Fixed HUD icon issues and issues with map information

Fixed various Initiates issues

Fixed additional issues with notifications Mission tweaks (campaign, coop and side content) Fixed various low occurrence walkthrough breaks in both Campaign and COOP

Fixed various NPC issues

Fixed issue with the quest log disappearing for specific side missions World and 3D Fixed various collision and mesh issues

Fixed additional issues where player would fall through the world

Fixed specific areas where textures were missing PC-Specific Fixed crash on "Quit to Windows" in free roam mode

Fixed crash on accepting multiple "Join the club" requests

Fixed issues with TXAA

Fixed issues with PCSS

Fixed issues with textures on NPCs

Fixed black texture issues on MSAA-4x, MSAA-8x and TXAA

Right Control now can be assigned as a hotkey

Minor UI fixes

Readers who get the patch, let us know how it goes!

UPDATE: 9:39PM Well, this is strange. The download is supposed to be 6.7GB, but my Xbox One has prompted a 40GB download...


That is basically the size of the whole game, which you can see weighing in here pre-patch 4.


I've seen other gamers mention this 40GB thing online, though only for Xbox One. And I've seen Ubisoft officials mention on Reddit and on the game's official forums that this might be a display error. I've asked Ubisoft if they've figured it out for sure. In the meantime, consider the fact that before I began the download, my Xbox One had less than 30GB free. Evidence that this is a display error after all? Or is it 40GB that's being swapped bit by bit for the 41GB already on my system?


UPDATE 2: 10:34pm Ubisoft has confirmed that the 40GB download is for real. It's not a display error. They posted the following on their official site.

We have received and confirmed reports that some Xbox One players who have previously applied Patch 3 are seeing a 40GB download instead of the expected 6.7GB download. Unfortunately, an issue with the patch downloading process is replacing the entire game instead of just the parts affected by the patch. This is obviously not the expected behavior, and we apologize that many of you will have to wait longer than expected to complete this download. This issue isn't causing any other problems and once the download is completed players will have the most-up-to-date and fully patched version of Assassin's Creed Unity. We are working with Microsoft on a solution to reduce the total download to the intended size so that you can get back into the game faster, but as of now we have no ETA on when this will be resolved. Currently there is one known workaround: Owners of the disc version of the game can uninstall the game and reinstall it. On starting the game, the patch process will start with the correct download size.

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