Digital Foundry called Star Wars Jedi: Survivor the worst triple-A PC port of the year. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was rumored to underperform on all platforms during the review process, but EA may not have anticipated how negative the initial response would be.
As of this writing, it’s only a third of the way through the year, but the PC port is quickly gaining notoriety. This is hardly a new phenomenon, as last year’s The Callisto Protocol came under fire for a stutter that made the game nearly unplayable, and even Game of the Year winner Elden Ring struggled to perform consistently. But the unacceptable state of PC ports seems to be becoming more acute, rather than regressing into technological history. EA’s Wild Hearts is a serious contender for the Monster Hunter franchise, but has unceremoniously faded from public discussion due to poor performance. Even after the delay, the PC port of The Last of Us Part 1 will need a series of patches from Naughty Dog before the platform can become a viable alternative to its PlayStation roots.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the most important, and according to Digital Foundry, it symbolizes everything one would expect from a “bad” PC port. The analysis video begins succinctly — the iconic duel of fate is accompanied by a series of performance issues and graphical errors — before saying that Star Wars Jedi Knight : Survivor is “in a state of disbelief,” especially with so many existing The problem occurs in 2019 Star Wars Jedi: Order of the Fallen.
Shader compilation stuttering was one of the most significant issues Digital Foundry found, and it was a common problem with disappointing PC ports. High-end GPU and CPU utilization was well below ideal, barely reaching fifty percent. The absence of DLSS and upscaling tools other than FSR means there’s little to no way to troubleshoot framerate issues, and virtually impossible to give graphics advice.
In addition to these technical limitations, Digital Foundry also highlighted poor UI design and implementation as a major failure of the port. EA and Respawn have responded to these issues and are taking steps to address them. The note, posted to EA’s Star Wars Twitter account, drew some ire from fans, who felt the publisher wasn’t taking full responsibility for the state of the game. Hopefully the upcoming patch will fix most of the issues and allow fans to enjoy engaging adventures in the Star Wars galaxy.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor now available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S