The Wii U version of Watch Dogs, released some months after the game became available for other systems, has received its first official screenshots from Ubisoft, shortly before launch.
The game, which comes on a disc or as a whopping 15GB eShop download, centres around master hacker Aiden Pearce’s quest to avenge his niece’s death (among other things). The game was heavily hyped before its launch, but some critics felt it fell flat in certain areas, not least the limited scope of its hacking mechanics.
The Wii U version will be released in Europe this Friday, after the game was delayed due to Wii U’s low sales and lack of power compared to the other systems. However, this hasn’t stopped the screenshots looking very nice indeed. Launch day DLC including Conspiracy! and Access Granted will also be available.
Source: MyNintendoNews
Better late than never. Sad to say Ubisoft has announced this is their last real game on the Wii U. I’m hoping they change their mind if Watchdog sales are good. Unfortunately, with SSB coming out this weekend, the outlook doesn’t seem bright.
I don’t know how Ubisoft (or anyone, really) could expect strong sales for this game though.
Watch Dogs reviews weren’t stellar on any platform. Now the Wii U release is coming out months late, at full price, with no marketing, and is going head-to-head against Smash Bros (along with other holiday releases for various platforms).
Despite the delay, the Wii U release apparently contains no meaningful additional content, no existing DLC added on disc to make up for the lengthy delay, and will never get the well-received Bad Blood DLC pack.
Seriously, what kind of sales expectations should be taken from that scenario?
I’ll keep my eyes open and will consider buying once Watch Dogs hits a sub-$20 price point. My guess is that it won’t even take that long.
On the one hand, I am grateful that this game did release on the Wii U, finally. It’s a game that’s always interested me, and I don’t have another platform to play it on.
On the other hand, yes, Ubisoft’s handling of the game, overall, just baffles me, to put it mildly. Basically it feels like they have a ‘don’t care’ attitude of the game, and of course that carries over to their support of the Wii U in recent times.
And to further add worry to the quality of the game, I see videos like this that show some of the graphics glitches that I hope are not a common occurrence:
http://youtu.be/sXBHOqyJLQU
Despite my negative comments about how the release was handled, I expect that Watch Dogs will be a good game and will fill a niche on Wii U that doesn’t have a lot of competition.
Like you, I am glad it’s getting released on Wii U and do plan on buying – just not at full price.
I’d love to see how Watchdogs incorporates the Wii U gamepad into the gameplay. I haven’t played the game for any console yet, but I’d be interested in seeing how the Wii U version stacks up against, say, the PS4 version.
Don’t get your hopes up too high.
Early reviews suggest that gamepad implementation isn’t a big deal. They also consistently mention framerate issues, and I haven’t seen anything suggesting that the delay for the Wii U version did it any favors. In fact it sounds like this game could (arguably) be the worst version of Watch Dogs released.
Maybe that’s an overreaction, maybe not. We’ll have to wait for some more reviews to come out (and probably try playing ourselves) before really knowing.