Was Watch Dogs Prematurely Unveiled?

The controversy continues.

When Watch Dogs debuted at E3 2012, it hit hard. However, Ubisoft possibly regrets that big splash now, as expectations are absurdly high. On top of which, recently leaked gameplay suggests that the game had to be scaled back; graphically, it doesn’t appear to be as impressive. That’s all rumor, though, and the publisher maintains that Watch Dogs will “definitely look ‘next-gen.'”

“They forced us to go at E3 2012. Yves was the one who wanted us to go at that E3, even though we felt it was a bit early.”

The bottom line is that maybe the game settled into the spotlight too early. Creative director Jonathan Morin told Edge (as cited by Polygon) that in fact, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot “forced” the team to bring Watch Dogs to the 2012 show:

“They forced us to go at E3 2012. Yves was the one who wanted us to go at that E3, even though we felt it was a bit early.”

Morin did clarify by saying that ultimately, he thinks Guillemot was “right” in bringing the game out at that time.

I’m not so sure about that. Are you?

After the delay last year, questions started to circulate. As 2014 progressed, we started to hear rumors that perhaps the game wasn’t close to ready, and that the promotional material wouldn’t resemble the final product. All of this could be incorrect but the point is, these questions and rumors exist. Maybe Ubisoft could’ve avoided these potential pitfalls if they didn’t amp everyone up way ahead of time.