Why then release a trailer that doesn’t show the game at its stunning best? Surely that in itself is a monumental cock up? The handling of the aftermath hasn’t been brilliant either. Take Ubisoft’s Tessa Vilyn, who made a needless faux pas on her Twitter account:
Ubisoft’s Tessa Vilyn, not minding her words
The tweets have since being removed, but the resulting backlash is clear to see on her page. People knew what she really meant, of course they did, but the fact remains she used the words “crappy graphics” not only in relation to Watch Dogs but also to another game. Unfairly too, I might add. There was nothing “crappy” about Outlast’s graphics. We’re not bashing Tessa, but if you’re trying to fan some flames, don’t do it by throwing the PR equivalent of verbal gasoline on them. That was just a bit silly now, wasn’t it?
During a live stream Q&A session on Twitch yesterday, Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin actively dodged the chance to go in-depth on the issue. Instead, he told fans not to worry about the graphics and stated that the recent previews, which were played on the PS4, have all said positive things. He also highlighted that the development team has continued to “push global effects and graphics”. A replay of the Q&A is unavailable at the time of writing.
He’s right, the previews have been positive, but looking around you’ll be hard pressed to find one that highlights anything about Watch Dogs’ graphics. In fact it’s a consistent omission now that it has been highlighted. There’s probably nothing in that; it would have also been mentioned if the graphics were looking poor, but it’s an inadequate response nonetheless. This was the perfect opportunity to instantly ease the situation and specifically talk about the way the trailer looked, not dodge and deflect the issue.
Make no mistake – Watch Dogs’ gameplay premise is immense. The level of interactivity protagonist Aiden Pearce has with the fictional Chicago makes it unlike anything we’ve played. Ubisoft should simply use that card to their advantage. If you needed to scale back the Disrupt engine to keep the promising gameplay intact, just tell us! Don’t try to hide it. Personally, I’d applaud the decision. At the end of the day, gameplay is what really gets our juices flowing and the larger console audience is still on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Scaling back those visuals a bit for a better all-round cross-gen experience would make sense.
Alternatively, if the graphics really haven’t downgraded and this is just an unfortunate case of YouTube trailer compression, Ubisoft needs to state as much and put our minds at ease with new gameplay footage – and quickly. Rumours and mistrust propagate like wild fire on the internet and Ubisoft will know this needs addressing as a priority. Concerned murmurings that their other hotly anticipated title The Division might suffer the same fate are already surfacing; dodging one issue just makes speculation over another worse.
What do you make of it all? Rushing to cancel the pre-order or is the backlash unjustified? Sound off in the comments below.