Ubisoft's Lesson From Watch Dogs? "Make The Games Playable"
Watch Dogs will forever be a story about a game that showed one thing when it was revealed, but was something entirely different when people got to play it. The difference was so radical, that even though the game sold, and sold well, many of the fans are demanding that the sequel be like the “demo” they say when it was unveiled at E3.
Ubisoft appears to have learned from that, and will do it’s best to ensure that games are playable first rather than just showing a trailer of “potential” gameplay. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot spoke to The Guardian and said:
“With E3 2015 we said, OK, let’s make sure the games are playable, that they’re running on the target machines,” he said. “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.
“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.”
With numerous other Ubisoft games coming, no doubt the company will do its best to have no more misinterpretations.