While the Watch Dogs delay from November 2013 to May 2014 may have disappointed millions of gamers worldwide, Massive Entertainment, the developers behind The Division, actually found it to be a good thing.
In an interview with Examiner, Massive Entertainment’s Managing Director David Polfeldt talked about how the delay was “tremendously important” for everyone at the studio to see:
It’s tremendously important for us as a developer studio to know that the owner and the publisher are ready to take that hit; and [the Watch Dogs delay] was a massive hit. I think their shares fell 25% on the day it was announced it was being delayed. It takes so much courage to live through that day and still think that was a good decision. So for us in the development [side of things], that’s an important message that ultimately the management will back up the goals that we have, which is the game has to be great.
That’s ultimately the end goal and then it’s a million times better if it’s on time, but if there is a choice between time and quality, then quality will win. If you look at Ubisoft you see a lot of people who have been in the company for over 20 years and that’s not very common today in corporate landscapes. But I do think that one of the reasons is people believe that ultimately this company has a very positive agenda about putting out good entertainment products and we’re willing to back it up, we’re will to take a few hits and some larger risks to make sure quality is very high.
Last we heard, The Division is still set to be released in 2014.
