After announcing that The Crew, The Division, and Rainbow Six Siege all have over 10 million registered players, Ubisoft held their earnings call yesterday, where they discussed some of their upcoming games, including Watch Dogs 2.
Set for release on November 15, Watch Dogs 2 is seeing lower than expected pre-order numbers, CEO Yves Guillemot revealed:
The pre-orders are not as high as we thought they could be, but we feel like the experience is a fantastic experience so we feel it can do extremely well.
Watch Dogs 2’s pre-order numbers might not be indicative of actual sales though, with Ubisoft pointing out that Far Cry Primal had low pre-orders but went on to sell really well. Additionally, Rainbow Six Siege’s launch sales were “okay,” but post-launch support and word-of-mouth helped it reach 10 million players to date.
CFO Alain Martizen added that, while pre-orders are important, adding new content over a long period of time is also key to a game’s success:
What we are trying to say are pre-orders are indeed very important, quality is very important, but also the attention that you put on the game over the long term is also very very key.
This is why we’re doing exactly that on The Division. We believe that for the good of the brand, the fact that we are proving to our customers that we continue improving and listening to them to come with a perfect experience, is what will be the most valuable for the success of that game, and its future expansion, and also for the future of the next game.
Elsewhere in the call, Guillemot said they can’t say much about the next Assassin’s Creed game yet, but they’re working really hard on it and it will be “launched when ready.” Martinez added, “It’s a great game. I’ve seen it. It’s looking good.”
Before Ghost Recon Wildlands launches on March 7, 2017, Ubisoft is planning to do “some open betas and closed betas that will help a lot on the players to actually know what the game is and what it can become. We are very confident it will excite gamers a lot.” Expect the betas to start in early 2017.
Mentioning that feedback for Wildlands has been “excellent,” Guillemot said, “It can be a revolutionary game, and to compare with The Division last year, it’s in the same trend actually.”
Ubisoft also confirmed that South Park: The Fractured But Whole is still on track to be released before April 2017.
[Source: Ubisoft, GameSpot (1), (2) via MCV]
