The debacle with the visuals for Watch Dogs caused Ubisoft to re-evaluate how future games would be revealed according to CEO Yves Guillemot. Speaking to the Guardian, Guillemot stated it was paramount for this year’s games to be running on the target machines above all else.
“With E3 2015 we said, ‘OK, let’s make sure the games are playable, that they’re running on the target machines.’ When we show something, we ask the team [to] make sure it’s playable [and] make sure gamers can immediately see exactly what it is. That’s what we learned from the Watch Dogs experience – if it can’t be played on the target machine, it can be a risk.”
As not as if Watch Dogs was a failure though – before Destiny, it was the biggest new IP launch of 2014 and heralded what will be a new series for Ubisoft. As Guillemot relates though, “It’s a real challenge to create those types of games. When they come out, especially the first iterations, they are not perfect on everything.
“We think we launched a good quality game for a first step in a new brand with a new technology. It’s just so complex – seamless multiplayer, connectivity with mobile and tablets, so many things – it was maybe a bit too much for a first iteration.”
Senior vice president of sales and marketing Tony Key further added that, “Creating a new franchise like that is the hardest thing to do in our industry because there’s so much risk involved.
“We’re incredibly happy with the sales of the game and the experiences that the people are having. So it’s a franchise. It goes into the franchise barn and now we figure out what to do next. It’s something that we can build on now.”
Does that mean an announcement for Watch Dogs 2 any time soon? We’ll have to wait to find out.