10 Big Industry Gaffs Gaming Companies Want You To Forget
5. Watch Dogs' Graphical Downgrade (Ubisoft)
A case of hype and flashy gameshow tactics becoming self-defeating in their own right, Watch Dogs was always meant to be Ubisoft's next big thing. When it was first shown off at E3 2012 people found themselves marvelling at the environment that Ubisoft had supposedly completed, and were wowed further when it returned the following year confirmed to be on the then next generation of consoles. This was not the Watch Dogs that got released however, with the final release suffering from a graphical look that bore no resemblance whatsoever to the gorgeous pixels we were shown at both of its E3 shows, along with a shoddy story and fairly lacklustre gameplay to boot. It was very much a case of the perpetual hype-machine getting crushed underneath its own weight, but it did expose the rather unsavoury marketing techniques developers and publishers used at different shows. The debacle surrounding Ubisoft's new IP only further embedded the cynicism gamers now seem to have in respect to all pre-release material for titles, which is a huge shame considering part of the fun in getting games is delighting in the fervent excitement that occurs beforehand.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
