I don't think I'm alone when I say Watch Dogs was one of my biggest disappointments of 2014. The E3 presentations leading up the release didn't quite match up, and it's a discrepancy Ubisoft recognizes.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot discussed the subject of Watch Dogs and the difficulty of developing a new IP in a big, open world.
“It’s a real challenge to create those types of games,” he said. “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.”
Guillemot also talked about the pre-release presentations of Watch Dogs and how they weren't entirely genuine. Apparently it's affected the company's entire approach to pre-release demos.
“With E3 2015 we said, OK, let’s make sure the games are playable, that they’re running on the target machines," he explained. "When we show something, we ask the team, make sure it’s playable, 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.”
Despite the mixed reception of Watch Dogs, it sold enough to earn a sequel. Hopefully the company corrects some of the first game's mistakes in the inevitable follow-up.
