Overview of 2023s most challenged PC ports and how patches changed the scene
Technical experts from Digital Foundry assessed the roughest PC arrivals of 2023, but they also noted that the list did not include every title that deserved critique. The aim was not to crown a universal worse port but to highlight the most problematic launches that still showed potential for improvement through subsequent updates.
The team explained that the evaluation focused on games they personally played, comparing the initial release version with later patches to see if developers could address the issues. Because port fixes often take several months, especially after a game ships, Digital Foundry intentionally did not include fall and winter releases in their late-year analysis. This approach helped avoid skewing the results with titles that would normally receive fixes after a longer feedback loop.
In their early commentary, Digital Foundry did point to ports that later improved dramatically: The Last of Us Part I, Abandoned, and Redfall. All three launched in rough shape, with the Naughty Dog remake standing out as the most challenging at launch. However, subsequent patches and updates managed to restore playability and performance, turning a rocky debut into a far more acceptable experience for many players.
By contrast, three titles did not see the same kind of recovery. The remake Empty Space, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Wild Hearts performed poorly across platforms, and only console versions received notable fixes. A curious footprint of these three was that they were all published by Electronic Arts, adding a common thread to the discussion about how a publisher can influence post-launch support across different engines and hardware configurations.
Separately, Digital Foundry drew attention to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor as an example of a high-profile port that struggled on PC across configurations, along with Wild Hearts, which faced severe performance hurdles. In both cases, the experience on PC was notably slower even when settings were tuned, and in the case of Wild Hearts, the performance issues could be perceived as extended freezes that did not resolve quickly. Readers are encouraged to view the findings as a reminder that even big-budget titles can struggle to scale smoothly to PC hardware at launch. This analysis underscores the importance of ongoing optimization after release and the potential for patches to change the trajectory of a game’s reception over time. The broader takeaway is that developers and publishers who commit to consistent post-launch improvements often salvage a portion of the initial disappointment for their audiences. This overview is compiled from Digital Foundry’s observations and updates, with attribution to VG Times.