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Yves Guillemot: "We learned from the mistakes we made with Watch Dogs"

O

oni-link

Member
Source

In 2012, a fallow year for the E3 video game expo in Los Angeles, Ubisoft revealed its latest open-world action adventure – and promptly stole the show. Watch Dogs, a cyberpunk thriller set in an astonishingly detailed recreation of Chicago, looked amazing, with its complex lighting effects, lifelike character animation and detailed weather simulation.

There was just one slight problem – when the game was released on PC and the next-gen consoles, the visuals did not quite match that early promise. For many gamers, the disparity symbolised a growing problem with games industry marketing: a reliance on “vertical slice” demos to build early hype. These pre-release presentations tend to be built on powerful PC hardware and are designed to give an impression of the performance levels that development teams are targeting. The problems come when the game is released months or even years later, and the reality fails to match the early promise, with the most ambitious and demanding effects often scaled down or missing.
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Speaking to the Guardian at this year’s E3, Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, conceded that the company had been caught out by the complexity of the project.

"It’s a real challenge to create those types of games,” said Guillemot. “When they come out, especially the first iterations, they are not perfect on everything. We think we launched a good quality game for a first step in a new brand with a new technology. It’s just so complex – seamless multiplayer, connectivity with mobile and tablets, so many things – it was maybe a bit too much for a first iteration.”

Guillemot said that reactions to the Watch Dogs demo had re-shaped the company’s approach to showing off pre-release games. “With E3 2015 we said, OK, let’s make sure the games are playable, that they’re running on the target machines. When we show something, we ask the team, make sure it’s playable, make sure gamers can immediately see exactly what it is. That’s what we learned from the Watch Dogs experience – if it can’t be played on the target machine, it can be a risk.”
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Speaking about Ubisoft’s approach to internal development, Guillemot said that the company would continue to accompany its triple A releases with experimental projects pitched to him and chief creative officer Serge Hascoet by small teams. The process has seen offbeat titles like Valiant Hearts and Child of Light come to fruition. Apparently, developers have even started skipping the official pitching procedure. Newcastle-based studio Ubisoft Reflections started creating its botanical platformer Grow Home in secret.

“[Managing director] Pauline Jacquey said ‘we’re going to do a game that’s so cheap we don’t need your approval – we have something that’s already good enough’. When I saw it for the first time it was 60% done. I like that approach. When a project costs more than $5m we need to look at it because it can go wrong. But when it’s €200,000 to €300,000, they can make all the decisions they need to to make it happen.”
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So I guess all the E3 games they showed were running on the "target machine"?

Glad to see they're still going forward with the smaller games, I was disappointed we didn't see anymore of those games at E3, as Child of Light and both Rayman games were fantastic

Vertical slice if old
 
Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
Ron-Burgundy-Saying-I-Dont-Believe-You.gif
 
O

oni-link

Member
Sn4ke_911 said:
And so will the new Ghost Recon.

dontbelievehislies.jpg
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I think he means this was a lesson they have learned since Watch Dogs got a lot of negative press for the downgrade, which would mean E3 2015 is the first E3 they decided to make sure all the games shown were running on the "target machines"

The Division doesn't look like it will be downgraded again from it's E3 2015 showing, that will probably look close to the final product

Though I agree being sceptical is the best approach until we see the final build
 
R

RK128

Member
Ubi was the developer that strictly highlighted that games were running on console hardware (they did this with the army-fighting game and Rainbow Six I believe), so they are learning I think :).

Just hope they do keep that in mind for there future games; if your game is presented as something first then drastically changes latter; you will face some form of backlash.
 
M

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
What they did with Unity was 10 times worse than Watch_Dogs. Downgraded games don't bother me as much as flat-out broken ones.
 
B

Busty

Banned
2732023-289650_screenshots_2014-11-11_00006.jpg


"I do not believe I am ready for public consumption at this time. Come back a few weeks after the game ships."
 
obin_gam

obin_gam

Member
For me, the graphics wasn't the problem with Watch_Dogs.

The bigger issue was that the game was boring.
 
T

tuxfool

Banned
obin_gam said:
For me, the graphics wasn't the problem with Watch_Dogs.

The bigger issue was that the game was boring.
Click to expand...

Bingo. The game looked fine though it looked better in the demos. The thing about this is that because the game wasn't very good, graphics became a far bigger issue than it should have been.
 
P

PedroLumpy

Member
Acquiescence said:
Really? Because it looks like The Division is going to repeat the cycle.
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Well, I think(?) the first Division footage was shown before the whole Watch Dogs stuff blew up. Assuming they're telling the truth about adopting a new policy, it would still be too late for The Division.
 
M

Montresor

Member
I hope to god the only mistakes they are talking about have to do with graphical downgrades and dishonest trailers showing misleading graphical effects. Aside from that Watch Dogs was sublime. I absolutely loved the game's unique take on an open-world game. I really like how the "smart phone" was used very effectively as a game play mechanic throughout the game, whether it was for stealth sections, or escaping from enemies in the open world, or for performing various puzzles.

Hopefully they take the same package, improve upon it as you usually would with a sequel, and stick to being honest with the graphics.
 
I

itsbenoclock

Member
obin_gam said:
For me, the graphics wasn't the problem with Watch_Dogs.

The bigger issue was that the game was boring.
Click to expand...

And there it is.

Imo, as someone who hadn't paid much attention to Watch Dogs' trailers and such, I didn't think the graphics were all that abysmal for a console launch. I got the game when it was £15 in the PSN sale and it was maybe just about worth it for that, I can understand anyone who would be annoyed paying full price for it.
 
R

RealityPales

Member
With Ubisoft, the second time around is always the charm. Assassin's Creed II, Far Cry 3 (second time with open world).

Watch Dogs will be no different.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
Disturbing that performance seems to be the only discussion they're having, as opposed to design. Watch Dogs could be seamless 120fps @ 4k and I wouldn't care.

If it were 15fps @ 360p and it were an amazing game, I would play the shit out of it.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
PedroLumpy said:
Well, I think(?) the first Division footage was shown before the whole Watch Dogs stuff blew up. Assuming they're telling the truth about adopting a new policy, it would still be too late for The Division.
Click to expand...

Yeah, The Division was first unveiled at E3 2013, around a year before the Watch Dogs downgrade controversy. But the point is immaterial regardless, really -- using it as "Gotcha!" only makes sense if the footage released at/circa E3 2015 is visibly inferior to the final product (and people wait for the PC version before crying foul).
 
D

Dremark

Banned
Never heard if Watch Dogs. Is it somehow related to Watch_Dogs? The names are kind of similar.

Also they should have learned this session ages ago.
 
I

IcyEyes

Member
I always enjoyed their games and that's what really counts for me, but please, no more awesome gameplay showcase that runs on ultra high spec PC, some people (rightfully) really don't get it.
 
M

Max_Po

Banned
only Watch_Dogs? that game atleast ran well.

So they havn't learnt anything from the turn Assassisn's Creed ..UNITY ??
 
T

tuxfool

Banned
JaseC said:
Yeah, The Division was first unveiled at E3 2013, around a year before the Watch Dogs downgrade controversy. But the point is immaterial regardless, really -- using it as "Gotcha!" only makes sense if the footage released at/circa E3 2015 is visibly inferior to the final product (and people wait for the PC version before crying foul).
Click to expand...

While I don't think people should be crying foul, they (Massive), have already stated that they have reduced the fidelity of assets (globally) in order to accommodate development on multiple platforms.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
Max_Po said:
only Watch_Dogs? that game atleast ran well.

So they havn't learnt anything from the turn Assassisn's Creed ..UNITY ??
Click to expand...

They willingly showed pre-alpha footage of syndicate instead of prerendered fakery, isn't that also a good show of faith?
 
C

crimilde

Banned
“With E3 2015 we said, OK, let’s make sure the games are playable, that they’re running on the target machines. When we show something, we ask the team, make sure it’s playable, make sure gamers can immediately see exactly what it is. That’s what we learned from the Watch Dogs experience – if it can’t be played on the target machine, it can be a risk.”
Click to expand...

So let me get that straight, they make sure that a vertical slice is playable? Lol ok, that's not saying much.

Conclusion:

Krappadizzle said:
Ron-Burgundy-Saying-I-Dont-Believe-You.gif
Click to expand...
 
C

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Acquiescence said:
Really? Because it looks like The Division is going to repeat the cycle.
Click to expand...
They showed console footage for the first time instead of pc footage. Think they did that for the majority of game at their conference this year compared to previous years.

Max_Po said:
only Watch_Dogs? that game atleast ran well.

So they havn't learnt anything from the turn Assassisn's Creed ..UNITY ??
Click to expand...
From a couple months ago.

Sir TapTap said:
They willingly showed pre-alpha footage of syndicate instead of prerendered fakery, isn't that also a good show of faith?
Click to expand...
They also invited tons of people to play the game on the show floor and let them record their own footage.
 
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