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Ubisoft learned from Watch Dogs graphical disparity

Yves Guillemot: "it was maybe a bit too much for a first iteration."
Ricardo C. Esteves Editor-in-Chief Portugal 6 July 2015

2014 was a year full of high profile games for Ubisoft, but several of them ended up disappointing, like Watch Dogs, The Crew and Assassin's Creed: Unity. Regarding that first title, Ubisoft was accused of severely downgrading the game's graphical capacity between the first demo and the actual game, something that according to Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, won't happen again.

Talking with The Guardian, Guillemot admitted it is challenging to meet expectations, especially with first iterations: "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."

According to Guillemot, Ubisoft learned from the reactions to the Watch Dogs demo, and made sure almost every game showed at E3 2015 was playable and running on the target machines: "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."

Editor-in-Chief Portugal Ricardo C. Esteves was editor-in-chief of Gamereactor Portugal, writing for the site from 2013. He covered video games across news, previews and reviews, and also wrote on film and television.
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