‘We’re working around the clock’
Developer Campo Santo is working “actually, literally, around the clock” to fix the frame rate drops experienced by PS4 players of Firewatch. “Couple’a updates,” Vanaman stated on reddit. “One is that we’re in pipe with SCEA to get a patch into the game but it’s like 99% strange content fixes we’ve found as lots of people play the game on PC. So that’s coming but we’re at the mercy of the console patch process.
“Secondly, we’re currently talking with both Sony and Unity (the creators of the engine the game is built in) to continue to optimize performance of the game on console. Unfortunately, it’s a process that requires all three parties to be involved unlike a typical bug that we can quickly fix on our own (we’re pretty good at that). We’ll definitely be patching all platforms with every little content and performance fix we can find so folks can rest assured we’re doing everything we can (and WILL for a long time. We want the game that’s on Steam/PS4/anywhere to be the best possible version even after we’re out of the excitement of the launch window).”
When asked how the problem wasn’t picked up during testing, Vanaman replied: “I’ve played the game for hundreds and hundreds of hours on PS4, and maybe because it’s on test-kits and some retail boxes are different I personally didn’t experience these things. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, but I want to unequivocally say it wasn’t like we sat in a room, saw this stuff and went ‘eh, screw it, sell it anyway.’ We’re super fucking bummed that this is happening for some people and we’re working actually, literally, around-the-clock on it.”
In our Firewatch review, we said it was a “tight, taut human tale well worth the trek” and gave it an 8.
