Ubisoft has warned gamers against deploying a "mod" that makes Watch Dogs look significantly better than its release version.

"TheWorse's mod" is not in fact a real mod, but some small changes to the game's config file that unlock disabled render settings. Their inclusion in the final build of the game, leading some commentators to question why they weren't made available. Ubisoft has now responded, saying the settings were cut for good reason.

"The dev team is completely dedicated to getting the most out of each platform, so the notion that we would actively downgrade quality is contrary to everything we’ve set out to achieve. We test and optimize our games for each platform on which they’re released, striving for the best possible quality," Ubisoft said.

"The PC version does indeed contain some old, unused render settings that were deactivated for a variety of reasons, including possible impacts on visual fidelity, stability, performance and overall gameplay quality."

Ubisoft warned that the so-called mod "subjectively enhances the game’s visual fidelity in certain situations but also can also have various negative impacts".

"Those could range from performance issues, to difficulty in reading the environment in order to appreciate the gameplay, to potentially making the game less enjoyable or even unstable."