Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot claims that the mistakes his company made with Watch Dogs have changed how they preview, introduce, and even make games.
Of course, Watch Dogs did not end up looking as good as its initial vertical slice, but there are nuances to Yves’ statement that warrant some analysis. Around the time frame of Watch Dogs’ announcement until release, the industry, Ubisoft included, had picked up a bad habit of making these early demos on powerful PC hardware, and failing to deliver on that promise in the final product.
Guillemot pointed out the challenges of making a Watch Dogs, especially when you consider its many disparate and complex elements, including seamless multiplayer, mobile connectivity, an large scale ‘hackable’ open city environment, and more. Guillemot argues they could not avoid releasing these games with imperfections.
Now, regarding how they have changed, Guillemot says they made sure every game they revealed in the latest E3 was actually running and fully playable in their target machines. One game was not ready to reveal in this form, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and so they are saving their reveal for it this October during Paris Games week.
Guillemot also explains Ubisoft will continue to condone development of smaller games, such as Valiant Hearts. In fact, for games like Grow Home, which don’t approach certain budget milestones, devs have the freedom to work on them in secret, as long as it doesn’t hit that budget limit.
AndWatch Dogs 2? Yes, a sequel is in the works. Guillemot is mum about details, but he cites building on the foundations they’ve already established, and taking it to the next level.
