Watch Dogs 2 pre-orders short of Ubisoft’s expectations

Ubisoft maintains it is confident in upcoming sequel Watch Dogs 2, but has admitted that pre-orders for the game are lower than it had anticipated.

"The pre-orders are not as high as we thought they could be but we feel like the experience is a fantastic experience so we feel it can do extremely well," CEO Yves Guillemot told investors, as reported by GameSpot.

Guillemot conceded that some certainty may exist among gamers about the sequel’s quality after the mixed reaction to its predecessor. However, he also pointed out that recent sequels such as Far Cry Primal were slow out of the gate but went on to perform strongly.

CFO Alain Martinez added that the company intends to take a similar approach with Watch Dogs 2 as it did with The Division – that being long-term support to maintain and hopefully increase interest.

"What we are trying to say are pre-orders are indeed very important, quality is very important, but also the attention that you put on the game over the long term is also very very key," he said.

"This is why we’re doing exactly that on The Division. We believe that for the good of the brand, the fact that we are proving to our customers that we continue improving and listening to them to come with a perfect experience, is what will be the most valuable for the success of that game, and its future expansion, and also for the future of the next game."

Watch Dogs 2 is out on November 15th.