It seems that the excessive hype was worth the final product; although truthfully it doesn’t come as much of a surprise since Ubisoft held such confidence in Watch Dogs development prior to the game’s official launch. This week marks the ending of the first week that Watch Dogs was made accessible to retailers in both physical and digital copies via Steam. Despite some minor setbacks that we’ve commented on in previous articles, the game itself has received a lot of praise marking it as “the best-selling new IP at launch across the video game industry.” Ubisoft created a set stage for the action-adventure stealth game; promising superior graphics and an elegant frame-rate to accompany the game’s unique setting in a futuristic version of Chicago were not forgotten as Watch Dogs entered its final stages proceeding its debut. Out of the starting gate and into the fire, Ubisoft has estimated that there are over four million copies of Watch Dogs that have been sold across the globe. Which is a phenomenal number of impending sales that various hurting producers in the gaming industry would’ve been delighted to see on their personal charts.
Gamespot was able to secure a comment from Ubisoft’s marketing executive, “With such strong sales momentum and positive feedback from gamers, Watch Dogs has positioned itself as the must-have game of the moment,” Tony Key said in reverence to the title’s ample success. “We’re really proud of this achievement, and are confident that the Watch Dogs brand has a promising future.” Though the game itself will need another two million to reach the benchmark that Ubisoft expects of the next-gen title. One could argue that the game’s flexibility on all current platforms as well as next-gen was a marketing procedure used to squeeze out the game’s amount of possible sales. However, the tactic seemed to have worked despite the underlining critique that Watch Dogs‘ graphics suffered amidst the transition.
Watch Dogs launched for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC on May 27. The game has sold more than the original Assassin’s Creed has managed to accumulate in its lifetime.
While it did not come out as ‘clean’ of a launch as expected, with some players being purposefully locked out of their game in some instances, Watch Dogs has maintained a rather self-assured air that these sales are the tip of the iceberg. Ubisoft has retained their optimistic outlook on the games performance. Despite other branches of media arguing on how the game itself glorifies hacking. That debate doesn’t belittle the numbers, however; and Watch Dogs is indefinitely on the rise across multiple consoles. With over 5.5 years in development, Ubisoft poured a lot of effort and cash into the game in aspiration to see it surpass its brethren. Multiple fans of previous franchises that’ve also been developed by Ubisoft will agree this is a good sign, and might point to other games (besides Assassin’s Creed) making an appearance in the imminent future.
There have been some conversations alluding to a possible sequel, as of now we’re unaware as to where that information might lead. Though, numerous sources seem to be certain that Watch Dogs shows promise in becoming a set franchise. We’d love to hear your comments on the game’s overall potential, and we’ll be certain to keep you updated on the game’s progression on the market.