Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV selling more on next-gen

Pre-orders for Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag are higher on Xbox One and PS4 than on current generation platforms, says Ubisoft.

European chief Alain Corre told MCV that the transition to the next generation of consoles will be faster than expected.

It follows comments from UK retailers last month (MCV 745, 06/07/13), who claimed the lack of games released exclusively on PS4 and Xbox One, coupled with big current-gen games like GTA V, will dissuade consumers from upgrading.

The fans are really excited to get their hands on the new technology,” Corre said. It has been eight years without a home console from Sony or Microsoft so we feel a lot of excitement from our fans for Watch Dogs or Assassin’s Creed IV. The pre-orders we are getting are much bigger on our next-gen games.

So we feel that the transition might be quicker. There is a real appetite for change.”

In terms of Ubisoft’s own titles, he said: We expect Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag to be well accepted. When we look at our pre-orders on next-gen, we think these two games can feature in the Top Five.”

Corre added: There is a number of good quality products at launch [for each console]. I think that will bring back a lot of lapsed gamers and it will also seduce new consumers to spend some more time on interactive entertainment.

So we’re full of confidence heading into 2014.”