Watch Dogs 2 'long-tail' sales never happened

Did Watch Dogs 2 fail UbiSoft, or did UbiSoft fail Watch Dogs 2? It has been more than 6 months since Watch Dogs 2 released to less than stellar launch sales figures. UbiSoft were betting on 'long-tail' sales for the game. Currently it doesn't look like those sales are materialising.

Watch Dogs 2 released to some critical acclaim and underwhelming sales in November last year. The poor sales were mostly the result of general disappointment with the first Watch Dogs, owing to a heap of broken promises between the game's E3 demo and what actually got released. The paying customer, for once, remembered and Watch Dogs 2 reached barely 20% of the sales figures its predecessor enjoyed.

UbiSoft went into full PR spin mode following the disappointing release of the sequel with a statement from November last year claiming that Watch Dogs 2 will do better later. "There is a trend toward games, especially high-quality games, having stronger and longer 'tails' as favorable reviews and word of mouth spread. Watch Dogs 2 is already considered a tremendous addition to the open-world action adventure series and we're confident that millions of players are going to love it",  was the word from UbiSoft at the time.

githyp Watch Dogs 2 - Player stats

Well, fast-forward six months and Watch Dogs 2 Barely manages to accumulate 100 viewers on Twitch and if concurrent player numbers are anything to go by, those 'long-tail sales' are barely happening. Console sales figures are a bit harder to come by, but there is little reason to presume the game is fairing any better there, considering the great likely hood that gamers across the board were very unhappy with how Watch Dogs 1 turned out.

UbiSoft Watch Dogs 2

It's strange to see gamers put their money where their mouth is, or more to the point - not put their money in certain places. Watching a game fail financially is never a pleasant thing, and Watch Dogs 2 is now paying for the mistakes UbiSoft made with the previous entry. While I'm fairly certain that the publisher broke even with the title, or will eventually, denying UbiSoft those sweet-sweet pre-order and day-one sales might actually make a difference at some point in the future.

Everyone ready for Far Cry 5 and Assassin's Creed: Whatever?