WATCH_DOGS™ Breaks Records For Preorders Of A New IP

[T-hug]

London, UK – May 15, 2014 - Today, Ubisoft® shared impressive pre-order figures for Watch Dogs™, which is now the most pre-ordered new IP in Ubisoft's history and the most pre-ordered new IP in the entire industry this year. Watch Dogs is also the second- highest pre-ordered Ubisoft game ever*. Watch Dogs™ will be available on May 27 for PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system, Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC, as well as its release on Wii U™ system at a later date.

"These strong pre-orders are a clear indication of players' anticipation and excitement for Watch Dogs," said Geoffroy Sardin, Senior VP Sales and Marketing at Ubisoft. "The teams have worked tirelessly to ensure that players will enjoy a top quality game with enormous scope, and we can't wait to get the game into their hands."

"We are seeing tremendous excitement for the new Watch Dogs game," said Michael van den Berg, vice president of Merchandising at GameStop International. "In fact, Watch Dogs is the highest pre-ordered next-generation console game to date. It is on track to be one of the top selling video games across all consoles in 2014."

The development of Watch Dogs™ has been led by Ubisoft Montreal, in collaboration with teams at Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Quebec and Reflections, a Ubisoft studio.
In Watch Dogs™ players will assume the role of Aiden Pearce, a brilliant hacker whose criminal past led to a violent family tragedy. Now on the hunt for those who hurt his family, players will be able to monitor and hack their enemies by manipulating everything connected to the city's Central Operating System (ctOS). ctOS controls almost every piece of the city's technology and holds key information on all of the city's residents. Players will access omnipresent security cameras, download personal information to locate targets, control traffic lights and public transportation to stop enemies, and more. Watch Dogs™ lets the player use Chicago as their ultimate weapon and exact their own style of revenge.

Customers still have time to place their pre-order and benefit from exciting deals including additional skins, weapons and perks to improve players' hacking abilities.

In addition, the Season Pass is available for purchase giving players access to a unique single-player story featuring T-Bone, a brilliant but eccentric hacker; a new Digital Trip game mode, "Conspiracy!" plus new missions, weapons, outfits and more. At £15.99 theWatch Dogs™ Season Pass will be available for PlayStation®4 system, PlayStation®3 system, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.

Source: GBAtemp Press Inbox

 

[TheCasketMan]

Prepare for the milking of Watch Dogs.

 

[shakirmoledina]

its a good thing they took their time and delayed it. Buggy game with unpolished missions would really push ppl away.

 

[Tomobobo]

Yeah when you hype up a game for 2 console generations, you're probably going to get a lot of pre-orders.

 

[Gahars]

Prepare for the milking of Watch Dogs.

There's, like, nine different editions of the game. There's no time to prepare; we're already in the thick of it.

 

[Originality]

This can either go really well, or be decisively underwhelming. I pray for the former.

 

[Celice]

Prepare for the milking of Watch Dogs.

I am afraid of this somehow becoming the next Assassin's Creed milking.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Yer paying the full retail price and yet UbiSoft's gonna stab you in the back with the Season Pass bs.

I hated Capcom's "DLC" but making Season Passes for content that is yet to be released just shows they're already cutting content off the original game for extra profit.

 

[Taleweaver]

Yeah when you hype up a game for 2 console generations, you're probably going to get a lot of pre-orders.

The fact that steam throws pop-ups in everyone's faces that you can pre-order it at a discount probably helped as well.

 

[McHaggis]

I'm waiting for the Wii U version, I like to support the console where I can.

 

[Katsumi San]

I'm waiting for the Wii U version, I like to support the console where I can.

Me too! I have pre order many time ago for same day delivery! Lol 88 dollars but I do not mind!

 

[Mario92]

I still don't understand why people pre-order games. It's expensive and nowdays it seems to be common that game is buggy and fixed within couple months

I'll wait till they give all the extra content to PC. Consoles seem to only have timed exclusives. Also not 100% sure about uPlay.

 

[pwsincd]

 

[fojacko]

I don't get preordering games that barely have any ingame footage released. Yes, I preordered MK8, but when i did, all of the tracks, characters and features had been anounced, hell there was even 1 part of a let's play released when i preordered and plus it's a mario kart game, nothing is likely to go wrong. MK7 was probably one of the worst MK's to date, but that still stole 100 hours of my life, which is easily worth the £30 i spent.

Watch Dogs on the other hand... I have no idea what the game is going to be like, no-one who has preordered even knows if they're going to like the style of gameplay. Those people are called "idiots", spending £47 on a game which they know very little about. Why preorder when you can just wait a week or so after release and then you'll know the general opinion of the game? Oh you didn't get the bonus MISSION (yes 1 mission, not mission's, mission) and a "Vehicle Expert Pack" which gives you free or discounted cars, which i feel would ruin the game, oh you need more money to buy this car? Well f*** you because if you bought our game without knowing if you would like it, you would've got the car for FREE.

/rant

 

[Qtis]

I don't get preordering games that barely have any ingame footage released. Yes, I preordered MK8, but when i did, all of the tracks, characters and features had been anounced, hell there was even 1 part of a let's play released when i preordered and plus it's a mario kart game, nothing is likely to go wrong. MK7 was probably one of the worst MK's to date, but that still stole 100 hours of my life, which is easily worth the £30 i spent.

Watch Dogs on the other hand... I have no idea what the game is going to be like, no-one who has preordered even knows if they're going to like the style of gameplay. Those people are called "idiots", spending £47 on a game which they know very little about. Why preorder when you can just wait a week or so after release and then you'll know the general opinion of the game? Oh you didn't get the bonus MISSION (yes 1 mission, not mission's, mission) and a "Vehicle Expert Pack" which gives you free or discounted cars, which i feel would ruin the game, oh you need more money to buy this car? Well f*** you because if you bought our game without knowing if you would like it, you would've got the car for FREE.

/rant

I think that is a big problem in general. Most games drop in price quite fast, regardless of whether it's an AAA game or not. Hell, I just bought Thief for 30€ new (yes the new game isn't as good as the original series, but quite good nevertheless) and it hasn't even been 3 months from launch. I also happened to be the Nordic limited edition even though I bought it from the UK. Compare the 30€ vs 70€ + a pre-order DLC.

On the actual topic, I do see Watch_Dogs as an impressive title I'm interested in. Since I have far too little time for gaming for the next few months, I'll wait till the game has been released to buy it..

 

[Hells Malice]

I don't get preordering games that barely have any ingame footage released. Yes, I preordered MK8, but when i did, all of the tracks, characters and features had been anounced, hell there was even 1 part of a let's play released when i preordered and plus it's a mario kart game, nothing is likely to go wrong. MK7 was probably one of the worst MK's to date, but that still stole 100 hours of my life, which is easily worth the £30 i spent.

Watch Dogs on the other hand... I have no idea what the game is going to be like, no-one who has preordered even knows if they're going to like the style of gameplay. Those people are called "idiots", spending £47 on a game which they know very little about. Why preorder when you can just wait a week or so after release and then you'll know the general opinion of the game? Oh you didn't get the bonus MISSION (yes 1 mission, not mission's, mission) and a "Vehicle Expert Pack" which gives you free or discounted cars, which i feel would ruin the game, oh you need more money to buy this car? Well f*** you because if you bought our game without knowing if you would like it, you would've got the car for FREE.

/rant

Many, many games release both cinematic and gameplay trailers. Making an informed decision not too difficult even if a game is not fully released. While there is a problem with people blindly pre-ordering based on hype, there are also plenty who just want to support a game and are quite sure they will like it. I don't pre-order a ton of games these days (thanks to all the "demos" available for PC games), but the ones I do, I do to show support for games i'm sure to like. On the topic of Watch Dogs, there's like 10 cinematic traillers, a few highlighting gameplay features and many videos out there SHOWING actual GAMEPLAY footage. I'm not sure how you think a person couldn't form a valid opinion on whether or not they will like the game or not. If all the facts and details currently available aren't enough to make a person informed, then nothing will be.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with supporting games through a pre-order. However people doing so before informing themselves on what they are buying do need a good kick in the ass. Either way I am genuinely curious how this affects you either way? It's not YOUR money they're spending.

 

[fojacko]

Many, many games release both cinematic and gameplay trailers. Making an informed decision not too difficult even if a game is not fully released. While there is a problem with people blindly pre-ordering based on hype, there are also plenty who just want to support a game and are quite sure they will like it. I don't pre-order a ton of games these days (thanks to all the "demos" available for PC games), but the ones I do, I do to show support for games i'm sure to like. On the topic of Watch Dogs, there's like 10 cinematic traillers, a few highlighting gameplay features and many videos out there SHOWING actual GAMEPLAY footage. I'm not sure how you think a person couldn't form a valid opinion on whether or not they will like the game or not. If all the facts and details currently available aren't enough to make a person informed, then nothing will be.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with supporting games through a pre-order. However people doing so before informing themselves on what they are buying do need a good kick in the ass. Either way I am genuinely curious how this affects you either way? It's not YOUR money they're spending.

It effects all of us, because the more people who preorder the games, the more on-disc dlc will be made. If you just look at all the different preorder options are available for just watchdogs alone, you'll see how much they're milking the product BEFORE it's even released. At the rate it's going, we'll be buying £50 games and we'll get 1 mission and then we'll have to buy the rest as dlc at £10 each.

And hell as I said, you can literally just wait for release date, check online to make sure the game is actually functional (*cough*BF4*cough*) then if the game works fine go and buy it in your local game store, most xbox one and ps4 titles are the same price online and in store, so you're not spending extra, and if you are it's usually only £5 more. There is absolutely no reason to preorder, but these companies who have 10 different preorder options for 1 game (i wish i was exaggerating and none of them even include all of the preorder bonuses) are just clearly milking their customers. The only way we can stop these publishers/developers/whoever is making these decisions, is to not preorder, then hopefully they wont do it any more and even more hopefully, they wont cause the video game industry to collapse... again...

 

[chavosaur]

I was with you until you went DLC Conspiracy on me. Then I lost ya.