Watch Dogs Creative VP says the delay allowed the team to include systems they were considering leaving for a sequel.
Watch Dogs hasn’t even been released yet, but like pretty much every major new IP these days, its developers are already thinking about its sequel. Thankfully, due to the game’s sudden, lengthy delay, a whole bunch of game systems that were initially cut, to be left for a potential sequel, have managed to make it back into the game. Ubisoft’s creative VP, Lionel Raynaud says he has “few regrets” about how the final product has turned out.
“There were several systems that were not going to be in the game if we released in November,” he said. “There’s always the discussion of, ‘should we leave them for the sequel, or do we take the time to finish them?’ And we decided to take our time and do it right.”
He added that the delay has “made a big difference” as the team has been able to put a nice, proper polish on everything in the game. “The things we’ve developed the most are the interactions with hacking, and how in many situations being smart with chain reactions can offer something unique from any other open-world game.”
He firmly stated that “If we weren’t able to deliver this aspect, it wouldn’t feel new enough to be worth a new IP,” which he feels justifies the development delay.
Despite this good news, every creative vision ends up being limited in some what when you try to actually achieve it, and ultimately a few ideas did have to be cut. Raynaud confirmed that some larger concepts that emerged during development were deliberately ‘saved’ in order to avoid disrupting the “consistency” of the game.
“There are always things that you have to keep for the next game. In this case, the extra time allowed us to put a lot of our ideas into the game, so we are happy with that.”
It looks like Watch Dogs is shaping up to be a completely different beast from what we were expecting in November last year. It’s currently slated for a May 27 release date.
Source: Computer and Video Games
