Studios/publishers working with Nvidia or ATI/AMD has been a common practice since... well, kind of like forever. Nvidia used to run the TWIMTBP program for years while AMD tried to counter that with their Get In The Game alternative.

This, the Starfield thing or the close partnership between Nvidia and CDP with Cyberpunk 2077 (and also during the launch of The Witcher 3 with their Hairworks tech) are nothing new, and people only tend to complain about it when they're on the other end of the bargain.

The only difference is that now Intel has joined the game, and Ubisoft is more than happy to be bought in order to get more cash.

Yea but upscaling is becoming such an important feature to gaming that it should really be one of those things that should be included from all 3 vendors. Like back in those days where you had say Hairworks from Nvidia in some games or PhysX from Nvidia in others... Those kinds of features are like, it's nice to have but you can turn it off and still play the game. Ray Tracing in current generation is similar in that fashion. In a game like Cyberpunk or Alan Wake 2, yea if you have an Nvidia GPU, turning it on will look visually impressive but if you have a Radeon GPU, if you turn it off, you can still play the game.

But upscaling on the other hand is becoming a critical part of "just being able to play the game" unless you are willing to turn down the settings drastically. Many games built around new engines like UE5 are running at 720p render resolution on a PS5/Series X and the mighty 4090 is becoming a 1440p GPU if you want to play Naively. So until someone comes out with an upscaler that is not only widely adopted but also looks as good as DLSS and runs well on all modern GPUs, companies really should be including all 3.

Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:

Intel confirms 2024-2025 client CPU lineup: Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake and Panther Lake

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-confirms-2024-2025-client-cpu-lineup-arrow-lake-lunar-lake-and-panther-lake

Intel Core Ultra “Meteor Lake” CPUs officially launch on December 14th

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-core-ultra-meteor-lake-cpus-officially-launch-on-december-14th

*2nd attempt after the site did a number on me*

And that's exactly the problem here, upscaling should be another extra, not a necessary feature. That's the reason Nvidia came up with it.

Instead of fighting over why game X uses one upscaling tech or the other, we should demand to know why they have become such a necessity in such a small amount of time and why the industry is designing engines around upscaling techs.

It's unacceptable and the only ones who benefit from that shift are lazy studios that now have an excuse to not optimize their games while we, that have to run them in our rigs, are given the middle finger.

Looks like Cyperpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty is doing well in reviews - 90 so far in OpenCritic

Microsoft would buy Valve 'if opportunity arises,' said Phil Spencer in leaked email
https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-would-buy-valve-if-opportunity-arises-said-phil-spencer-in-leaked-email/
The FTC and Microsoft are presently in court over the FTC's desire to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and as seems to happen every time a big gaming company goes to court, there's been an accidental leak of confidential documents.
One of the documents is a 2020 email from Xbox chief Phil Spencer (via The Verge) in which he said that Nintendo is the most desirable gaming company Microsoft could acquire. Tucked into the end of that email is the comment that the Microsoft Board of Directors has seen "the full writeup on Nintendo (and Valve)" and is "fully supportive on either if opportunity arises."
>> And who wouldn't, right?

While I agree with what you are saying, we all know developers won't take the time to properly optimize their games. Most of them will like just test it on few high end systems and call it a day. I myself always prefer native over upscaling even if I like DLSS but with gen on gen improvements slowing down and gpu prices going up, the situation will be that if you want to keep your gpu for a long time, you basically need upscaling.

That would range from mildly concerning to an absolute nightmare, depending on what Microsoft would do. I find it very valuable that PC gaming is not in the hands of the main platform holder, and in fact supports other platforms quite well.