Just when it looked like nothing could stop Ubisoft from completely dominating the holidays, along comes a delay that changes its 2014 outlook.
Sandwiched in-between Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and South Park: The Stick of Truth, the innovative third-person action game Watch Dogs was set to make big waves with a November arrival on current and next-gen game systems. Today, Ubisoft changed the release date to somewhere past April 2014, citing that it wanted to work more on the game to make it even better.
The company stated the following regarding the delay:
“Our ambition from the start with Watch Dogs has been to deliver something that embodies what we wanted to see in the next-generation of gaming. It is with this in mind that we’ve made the tough decision to delay the release until Spring 2014.”
“We know a lot of you are probably wondering ‘why now ‘ We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune every detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.”
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you. We thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the way you respond on the web, at events, press conferences and during other opportunities we have to interact. Your passion is what drives us. We can’t wait to see you in Chicago next Spring. We are confident you’ll love this game as much as we love working on it.”
In addition, the multiplayer-oriented racing game The Crew was also pushed into a mid-2014 release cycle, though a specific release date hasn’t been given on it just yet.
Both of these delays have forced Ubisoft to change its financial outlook for the season.
“Our long term goal is to win the next generation. The tough decisions we are taking today to fully realize the major potential of our new creations have an impact on our short-term performance. We are convinced that, longer term, they will prove to be the right decisions both in terms of satisfaction for our fans and in terms of value creation for our shareholders. We are building franchises that will become perennial pillars of Ubisoft’s financial performance. In a context of growing successes for mega-blockbusters, the additional time given to the development of our titles will allow them to fulfill their huge ambitions and thus offer players even more exceptional experiences” stated Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot.
“Fueled by strong momentum for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, calendar 2014 will see the return of growth to the console market. Combined with the quality of our line-up and our strong financial situation, this growth will allow us to achieve record operating income in fiscal 2014-15 and 2015-16.”
Source: GamesIndustry International
