Ubisoft’s Laurent Detoc has stated his belief that Watch Dogs could have been the highest-rated launch title for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One had it managed to meet its original November 2013 release date.
Speaking during an interview with IGN, Detoc revealed that the open-world hacking title’s release wasn’t in doubt at Gamescom in August. However, it was eventually decided the game would have to be delayed to ensure it met the level of quality demanded by the French publisher.
“I’ll tell you, at Gamescom, everybody was looking each other in the eye thinking we would be there at launch. There were already some lingering doubts, but we were plowing through it. There were more than a thousand people touching that game.”
“Then eventually, a month later, we said, ‘this is not gonna fly.’ Then it takes a few more weeks to decide how we’re going to package that news for everyone. It’s not just about delaying for the sake of delaying it. No matter how hard we try, we also put out games that are not good quality, unfortunately.
“It’s not because we go out and say, ‘great, let’s make a piece of junk and put it out there.’ It’s really painful to us. But some games, you just can’t make them that much better because of how they’ve been progressing. Part of the decision to delay Watch Dogs is also that. We know it’s not where we want it to be. Can it get there? What will it take to get there? That’s why it takes a longer process. But in August we really thought we were going to have that game at launch.”
Nonetheless, Detoc remains confident that Watch Dogs will deliver the goods upon its release in spring 2014.
“I actually believe that Watch Dogs could have ended up being the best-rated game on next gen if it came out at launch,” he said.
“We wanted it to be even higher. The whole package is there already. But without sending them too many flowers, the guys at Rockstar have showed us again that if you make a 96-percent game, people will come.
“Watch Dogs, I can only hope we get to that level. There’s an attachment to the brand, in the case of GTA, that makes people really want to give it that 100-percent review. We’ll be missing that on Watch Dogs until we go further, potentially. That’s what we’re after.”
Watch Dogs is scheduled to ship for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. The game takes place in Chicago and focuses on Aiden Pearce, a skilled hacker who wages informational warfare upon his enemies.
Set from a third-person perspective, Watch Dogs combines blood-pumping gunplay with parkour-based navigation and fast-paced driving segments. Players can also invade each others’ games via a unique multiplayer component that taps into the game’s hacking mechanics.
Stay tuned to PSU.com for more details.