Bad Timing: Watch_Dogs Delayed Until Spring 2014

Strangely enough I only badgered the poor, beleaguered PRs at Ubisoft this afternoon to see if there were any surprises in store for the release date of Watch_Dogs. I'd spotted that South Park: The Stick Of Truth doesn't actually have a PC release date right now, despite the consoles being set for the 13th December in the UK, and wondered about their biggest Autumn title. Turns out I'm a proper, bona fide psychic. Very sadly, one of the most exciting-looking games of the year is no longer of the year.

Clearly this isn't something anyone wanted, and it is of course accompanied by the familiar statement about "polish". A potentially four month delay is a heck of a lot of polish. But the statement is heartfelt.

“Our ambition from the start with Watch_Dogs has been to deliver something that embodies what we wanted to see in the next-generation of gaming. It is with this in mind that we’ve made the tough decision to delay the release until Spring 2014.

We know a lot of you are probably wondering ‘why now?’ We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune every detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you. We thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the way you respond on the web, at events, press conferences and during other opportunities we have to interact. Your passion is what drives us.

We can’t wait to see you in Chicago next Spring. We are confident you’ll love this game as much as we love working on it.”

So the usual refrain from us then: we'd much prefer a finished and great game later on, than a buggy and broken one now. But man, I was rather looking forward to getting my teeth into this one this November. Of course, the Walker Constant states that first release dates can never be true, so I really should have guessed. My releasdar suspects this won't be the only delay on this one either, especially since the very fixed 22nd November date is now the extremely vague "Spring 2014". Which could mean anything from February to June. Let's just assume that all this extra time means there won't be any need to "delay" the PC version though, eh? Like appears to be happening with South Park, and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, and...