As many fans know, Watch Dogs Legion was originally scheduled to launch earlier this year on March 3. Along with Rainbow Six Quarantine and Gods & Monsters, Ubisoft delayed the trio of games to its next fiscal year which technically ran from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. While not ideal from a fan perspective, the delay actually seems to have benefited the studio who were able to bring some features to life they otherwise wouldn't have been able to.
In a recent interview, Watch Dogs Legion creative director Clint Hocking spoke about the game's lengthy delay and what they meant for the developers working on the title. While the team was preparing to release the title, the new launch window allowed them to reevaluate the systems in the game and push them even further. The "Play as Anyone" mechanic, central to the experience, really benefited from the extra time and added polish.
Developers combed over the existing traits of NPC characters and refined them even further to help make more characters stand out in the world with great abilities and traits. Players will have access to more varied and unique characters to recruit while also suiting the type of character a lot better. Fans got a glimpse of this during Ubisoft Forward with the construction worker who was able to walk in a restricted area and had access to a nail gun.
Outside of character refinement, the team also took the time to go back and take another pass at the uprising moments, arguably the biggest spectacles in the game. A player is able to take part in activities in each of the London boroughs to weakening the Albion corporation's control over it. Uprising missions add a unique and custom moment to the gameplay to show the population rising up to rid Albion of their streets. The delay allowed the team to make these moments even bigger and better communicate the sense of the population rising up against the security firm.
From a company perspective, the delays were in response to the less than favorable response to Ubisoft's most recent AAA releases at that time. The big culprit was Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, which not only received lukewarm reviews but middling reception from fans. The other big issue is that the company released that much too close to its other big live service game, The Division 2. These delays were intended to not only give the teams more time to execute their vision, but prevent future releases from cannibalizing each other.
Watch Dogs Legion releases October 29, 2020 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: IGN