Watch Dogs 2 Pre-orders Fall Short of Ubisoft's Expectations - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 November 2016 / 10,164 Views
Ubisoft during an earnings call attended by GameSpot stated that pre-orders for Watch Dogs 2 have fallen short of expectations.
"The preorders are not as high as we thought they could be but we feel like the experience is a fantastic experience so we feel it can do extremely well," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.
Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez added, "What we are trying to say are preorders are indeed very important, quality is very important, but also the attention that you put on the game over the long term is also very very key. This is why we're doing exactly that on The Division. We believe that for the good of the brand, the fact that we are proving to our customers that we continue improving and listening to them to come with a perfect experience, is what will be the most valuable for the success of that game, and its future expansion, and also for the future of the next game."
Watch Dogs 2 launches for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One worldwide on November 15 and for Windows PC on November 29.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Well, the first one was one of the most (if not the most) preordered Ubisoft game ever. And the consensus of the game once it came out was mediocre or worse. So a lot of people are weary this time around. That's what happens when you push hype that much.
People are learning that preordering is seldom a good a idea.
Agreed, especially with Ubisoft. Assassins Creed Unity anyone?
Wow Ubisoft. You're surprised the sequel pre-orders are low after you gimped the first game up to release and gave it the standard downgrade procedure from all previously shown content? Really? It's amazing that when you release garbage, people aren't going to overwhelmingly embrace the sequel. It doesn't help that nothing about Watch Dogs 2 feels all that interesting at this point either. The kicker for me was that they stupidly used The Division as their example of successful content. "We released a lacking and kind of broken game and continued to make it worse. Go team!" Could there be more of a disconnect between the executives and consumer reception?
They don't use Division as example of successful content, they simply state they are providing ongoing updates to Division. And the overall message here is not about those efforts yielding immediate success for those products, but about long term implication for their brand. If they just left the games to wither and never reach a decent state, then they would totally lose cred. If they at least eventually bring it to better status, then at least it demonstrates they know what to bring to next product. Nothing in the speech is crowing about imagined successes, sure it doesn't wallow in failure, but how is that productive?
This is arguably the most boring looking AAA sandbox release in years. I wont touch it. After the mediocre first entry, why are they even surprised?
Less people pre-ordering is a good thing.
Ill be buying it whether the critical reception deems it good or bad, just not pre-ordering it though, and sure as hell not buying any season pass.
I wonder... what in the world... could have led to a drop in faith for this particular series.
It's just like with AssCreed Unity and then Syndicate. Massive hype followed by a disappointing reception leads to a delayed punishment for the publisher. The game in question might still sell millions thanks to pre-order culture, but come the following installment, the loss of faith will be demonstrable in sales figures.
Sorry Ubisoft my money has already been earmarked for the many titles coming over the next few months that i want far more that Watch Dogs 2
"but we feel like the experience is a fantastic experience so we feel it can do extremely well,"
Is what every company CEO would say about their product. When has there been a time where a CEO would say "nah the pre-order are right, our game will be trash upon release, even we think so"?.
It requires Uplay for me to play it anyway so I can't say I'm interested, especially port wise.
For me the biggest mistake was wasting the opportunity to represent a race that isnt well represented in media and instead went for a safe black character :P I'm just sayin'! San Fransico is known for having tons of Asians and you didn't use one >~> the character pick is like going to a game store and walking out with a pack of bubblegum.
The game looks great and I'm hyped to play it on the ps4 pro!
