Ubisoft have had an interesting relationship with PC gamers lately - they've given exclusive DLC to consoles, introduced (and backflipped) on microtransactions in Mighty Quest For Epic Loot, and gave some comments in an interview that, when reported, seemed to indicate that Ubisoft's attitude to PC optimization amounted to 'just put a better GPU in'. That last one ruffled a few feathers on Ubisoft's end, and they've taken to their blog to set the record straight, saying that the comments were in respect solely to initial R&D, where optimization isn't a focus.

They then went on to say that PC optimization was the first place they started when the time came to leave the unfettered nature of pushing the technical boundaries, giving three reasons for doing so. The first is logistics - every dev has a PC, and many of them keep up to date with the most cutting edge developments in PC gaming design and technology.  The second is the similarity between the new generation of consoles and the PC:

'If, say, the team finds a way to shave 50% off the GPU burden for a particular effect, they can then expect a roughly equivalent savings on both next-gen consoles, and they can be confident in their ability to apply those savings. '

Finally, and this is a direct quote:

'Our developers and engineers are, simply put, PC fans. They know PC is an important platform and stand behind it. They want to make the game just as great on PC as it is on consoles. That's why Ubisoft has a team dedicated solely to building the PC version of Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag.'