Ubisoft blames background apps like Skype, MSI Afterburner, and Discord for PC Performance Issues

Ubisoft blames 3rd parties on performance issues within their games

In a recent Tweet, Ubisoft called on their users to disable background applications to boost the performance of their PC software, stating that popular software can lead to “performance issues or crashing” with their software. 

Initially, this Tweet led to a list of applications that Ubisoft recommended disabling, such as MSI Afterburner, Rivatuner, Skype, Discord, TeamSpeak, and others. Many of these applications are incredibly popular amongst PC gamers, leading to allegations that Ubisoft should ensure that their software works with these popular apps and not recommend disabling them. 

Applications like Discord and TeamSpeak are popular 3rd party chat options for gamers, enabling communications outside of in-game options. These applications are vital to many PC gamers, as are performance analysis applications for those who want to optimise their game’s graphical settings. 

Since publishing their original Tweet, Ubisoft has edited their linked help page to remove their list of 3rd party applications. Now, Ubisoft recommends disabling “Certain Microsoft services or third-party software running in the background”, suggesting that PC gamers “disable all programs temporarily” and then “re-enable them one by one” if disabling these programs results in a performance increase. 

RGB Software

In Ubisoft’s list of apps that are “likely to interfere with Ubisoft Games”, the company listed RGB controllers and game optimisers like Razer Synapse and SteelSeries Engine. Note, that Ubisoft frequently partners with Corsair to integrate their RGB controller software, Corsair iCUE, into many of their games. Most recently, Corsair iCUE support was integrated into Far Cry 6.

Corsair iCUE was not listed in Ubisoft’s list of background apps, but its competitors were. It is also worth noting that iCUE is also a hardware monitoring software, placing it in the same pool as MSI Afterburner. Ubisoft’s list is clearly showing a little favouritism…

  
Hypocritical Ubisoft

It is rich of Ubisoft to blame the performance of their software on 3rd parties, especially for a company that is famous for releasing many PC games in a poorly optimised state. Remember the CPU performance is Watch Dogs Legion at launch and the performance issues in games like Assassin’s Creed Origins? 

Ubisoft is also famed for its use of combined DRM solutions, pairing VMProtect with Denuvo to create a cocktail that is hard to crack but damaging to the overall performance of some of their games. Even in recent history, Ubisoft has received criticism for the performance of Far Cry 6 on PC, as that game is very CPU-limited in many situations. 

Ubisoft, if your games were better optimised on the CPU side, you would not have any issues with PC gamers running a few lightweight background applications. Yes, disabling background applications can boost performance, but you can’t expect everybody to run your software exclusively. 

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