Here's something interesting. It seems as though one retailer is hedging its bets, promising that Ubisoft's upcoming open world hackathon Watch Dogs is well on the way, and set to arrive right after Spring begins this March.
European retailer ShopTo has the game listed for a release date of March 21, which is kind of funny, considering that the developer hasn't said boo about the game's release date since delaying the title. For anyone keeping track, that's right around the time when another hotly anticipated, but also delayed Ubisoft title, is supposed to arrive - South Park: The Stick of Truth.
Retailers take shots at guessing games' release dates all the time, and are often wrong about it. Normally, this would be a pretty hum dum story, but ShopTo is actually garuanteeing the delivery date, meaning either the retailer is pretty damn brazen, or the staff knows something we don't. If the game's not in by the listed date, the store is offering financial compensation to anyone who pre-orders the game:
"We are so confident that you will receive Watch Dogs PS4...for Friday 21st of March 2014 that if for ANY reason you do not we will compensate you with £5.00 to your account. * Only if pre-ordered by 12pm on Wednesday 19th of March 2014"
There's a small catch that only customers who pre-order the game by March 19 will be eligible for the credit, but that's still a lot of time to get in a pre-order and a possible credit.
Other retailers have the game releasing considerably past March. For example, Amazon has the game listed for a June 30 release, as does GameStop and Target.
When Ubisoft announced back in October that Watch Dogs would be delayed, it was a giant disappointment, especially for people frazzled over what would happen with their next-gen console bundles. At the time, the official reason the developer gave for the delay was over quality, that the staff "needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune every detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience."
Ubisoft North America President Laurent Detoc later came forward to shed light on the decision to delay the game, saying it just wasn't at the stage where the crew wanted it to be: "We said, 'this is not gonna fly.' Then it takes a few more weeks to decide how we're going to package that news for everyone. It's not just about delaying for the sake of delaying it. No matter how hard we try, we also put out games that are not good quality, unfortunately. It's not because we go out and say, 'great, let's make a piece of junk and put it out there.' It's really painful to us. But some games, you just can't make them that much better because of how they've been progressing. Part of the decision to delay Watch Dogs is also that. We know it's not where we want it to be."
ShopTo's gutsy choice to guarantee the game's arrival is certainly encouraging, but it's best not to get your hopes up too high until Ubisoft says something a bit more official. Once that happens, we'll let you know.
Watch Dogs' open world of Chicago is home to a security network that would make Orwell piss his pants, responsible for keeping everyone and everything jacked in for the purpose of keeping tabs. At the same time, it allows players as Aiden to meddle with all manner of the city's infrastructure as they see fit - ATM's, traffic lights, security cameras, raise bridges, public transportation, access various networks, etc. The game is slated to release on PC, PlayStation 3 and 4, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.