Dear Reader:
Alien: Isolation's input lag will not be fixed
Feral Interactive, the team behind the Alien: Isolation port on Switch, have commented on some complaints about input lag from various users. The company has confirmed that there is some slight input lag, but they have no plans to fix it. Check out their full statement on the matter below.
There is a small input delay in both docked and handheld mode. This is partly due to the use of triple buffering, which was implemented to avoid screen tearing. Triple buffering is a technique used in many games, including Alien Isolation, and is a popular solution to screen tearing. As most players notice screen tearing more than a very slight delay on inputs, a decision to use triple buffering was made.
All decisions made in game development are a trade-off, and we believe the smooth input and framerate make a bigger difference to the majority of players than a slightly higher input latency.
We have seen a handful of comments from users who are more sensitive to input latency, but the overwhelming majority have praised the smooth framerate and input stability that was delivered, in part by using triple buffering.