14 DAY TRIAL // Watch Dogs, the open world title from Ubisoft, currently has a new release date of May 27 and the team working on it is interested in making sure that all fans of the experience understand exactly why the game was delayed from its initial date.
The official announcement in early 2013 explained that it was designed to be a launch title for both the Xbox One from Microsoft and the PlayStation 4 from Sony, but one month before the November launch window the publisher stepped in to announce a delay.
Jonathan Morin, the creative director, says that, at that moment, the game was both fun to play and pretty good but some crucial details of the experience were missing.
He tells Eurogamer that “When you’re promising a player that they can hack everything and express themselves, they expect the result to be there. A complicated game that is broken is no more acceptable than an easier one that works.”
Yves Guillemot, the leader of Ubisoft, was the one who made the final decision to postpone launch in order to make sure that the Watch Dogs experience managed to deliver the quality that was originally promised to players.
Morin adds, “I have to give credit to him. I don’t know many people who would have said that based on systemic gameplay stuff. A lot of people would have said ‘Who cares? Who will find that? Nine players out of 10 won’t get there!’ even if it wasn’t true just to get the game made faster.”
It’s unclear exactly what Watch Dogs mechanics were under par in November 2013 and how the company has managed to fix them since then.
Watch Dogs is now slated to arrive on May 27 on the PC, the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the PS3, the Xbox One, and the 360.
Ubisoft has also recently delivered a new trailer for the title, which introduces Aidan Pearce, the main character, once again and shows glimpses of both the story and the core gameplay mechanics.
The title will be centered on the concept of surveillance and hacking, with the protagonist able to use his abilities to influence the world around him as he plots his next move.
A futuristic version of the entire city of Chicago is open for gamers to explore and Ubisoft has promised that the story is both mature and fast-paced, while the combat is designed to give players plenty of options.