A need for extra polish was the common reason cited when Ubisoft’s open-world RPG Watch Dogs was delayed for six months from its original release date, which was set to coincide with the arrival of the Xbox One and PS4. Bundles had to be reshuffled and there was a great deal of grumbling from gamers who had been looking forward to hacking their way through Chicago, but ultimately the extra development time was probably for the best.

Speaking to Examiner, Massive Entertainment’s Managing Director David Polfeldt commented on the Watch Dogs delay and what it means to the development team currently working on another Ubisoft open-world RPG, The Division. According to Polfeldt, Ubisoft’s decision did a great deal to help build trust between the publisher and its developers.

Of course, Ubisoft may not have had to take a hit at all if the publisher hadn’t developed a habit of jumping the gun when it comes to video game reveals. Watch Dogs was reportedly unveiled far sooner than the development team would have preferred, and the projected late 2014 release date for The Division has been described as “laughable” by a source close to the project, who says there’s no way it will be ready before 2015.

“Definitely when we go to the internal milestones, we’re constantly being pushed for more innovation, thinking further, what could you do that surprises even ourselves? What are we not doing that we could do? Have you studied the competition? So there’s never a discussion about ‘just get it done guys, hurry up, we have a deadline, and it doesn’t matter if it’s really perfect, just get it done.’”

It seems that Ubisoft may have made the same mistakes with both projects, assuming that they could be pushed out earlier so long as the crunch time was crunchy enough. Gamers should probably count themselves lucky that Watch Dogs was delayed instead of being released as a potentially unfinished mess, but it remains to be seen whether Ubisoft has learned from their handling of these two major upcoming titles, or whether The Division will be shown the same leniency as Watch Dogs was.

Watch Dogs releases May 27, 2014 for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The Wii U version is aiming for a Fall 2014 release.

The Division is currently expected to release in late 2014.

Source: Examiner