Watch Dogs 2 Pre-orders Are Below Ubisoft’s Expectations

Pre-orders for Watch Dogs 2 are below Ubisoft’s expectations, the company has revealed during its latest earnings call.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot believes that one of the reasons why people aren’t pre-ordering Watch Dogs 2 in the numbers they expected is because gamers are waiting to see just how good the game actually is when it launches.

“People wanted to see if the game was up to standards,” he said. Watch Dogs failed to live up to expectations, so it’s natural that more people are hesitant when it comes to pre-ordering its sequel, and that’s exactly what Guillemot thinks is the case here. If the game receives a positive launch and reviews well, they expect to see sales of Watch Dogs 2 pick up.

However, Ubisoft aren’t too concerned at this stage as they mentioned that Far Cry 3, a game which was a huge success and sold very well, suffered from low pre-orders which were below Ubisoft’s expectations.

It’s also important to remember that Watch Dogs 2 is releasing at a time when many gamers have already spent money on the likes of Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which does have an impact on sales for games which are less hyped. Watch Dogs didn’t have that problem as it launched in May 2014 at a time when big game releases were few and far between.

During the earnings call, Guillemot also revealed that The Crew, Rainbow Six: Siege, and The Division all have more than 10 million registered players each which has seen the monthly active user base grow by 44% over the last year.