The debate is almost as old as the gaming world itself. Since the days of Mega Drive (SEGA) vs. Super Nintendo, people have said: “Graphics do not matter; what matters is having fun.” In practice, however, the public seems to care a great deal about visual quality, and the best example was the controversy surrounding Ubisoft's eagerly awaited open-world game, Watch Dogs.
For those who did not hear about it, here is a reminder of the controversial case: the Watch Dogs trailers shown at E3 2012 presented a version of the game with significantly better graphical quality in several respects than the final version released in 2014. After the game launched, a simple search could find videos comparing both versions. The amusing part is that the title's director, Jonathan Morin, said at the time the opposite of what people could see: “There is no loss of quality, especially in the new-generation versions. It is the opposite. What we showed at E3 2012 was worse in many respects. I think the issue is in the details. So there is no 'downgrade*.'”
*Downgrade: When a game or release appears visually inferior compared with what was previously shown in trailers.
Uproar on Social Media
"Even though Watch Dogs is nowhere near everything that was promised, it fulfills its purpose well" - Fábio Ferreira
As the video above shows, the changes were clear to many people, and this sparked outrage throughout the global gaming community, especially among those who expected to receive what they had watched in the first promotional trailer. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners were eager for the release of a game that would demonstrate the new generation's great graphical power, but what they received left them feeling "deceived" because the product did not match what had been advertised. On the other hand, both the specialist media reviewing the game as a whole and players who did not subscribe to the "binary discourse" said the experience was good and the graphics were pleasing, even if they did not reach the quality shown earlier.
“I got the PS4 version and was frustrated that the graphical quality was not the same as in the videos shown. Even though Watch Dogs is nowhere near everything that was promised, it fulfills its purpose well as a decent open-world game, and I became hooked enough to earn the platinum trophy. The game's content holds your attention, the soundtrack is exciting, and it is great to wander around Chicago, especially to complete the extra missions,” 28-year-old Fábio Ferreira told EpicPlay.com.
“I think the experience matters more than graphical quality. The problem is that Ubisoft used extremely exaggerated marketing compared with the final product's actual quality, creating the impression that Watch Dogs would put 'GTA V' to shame and be the most epic experience ever shown in the gaming world today, etc. In the end, it was just another game. Is it a good game? Yes. You can have fun with it, and it is technically well produced, including its graphical quality. It is just nowhere near everything they tried to present.
I believe the high sales figure was due exclusively to the 'hype' Ubisoft created, not the game's actual quality. A company cannot create deceptive expectations among its consumers in this way, and denying the obvious [referring to Morin's statement] ends up damaging its image,” said 22-year-old gamer Lucas Carvalho.
"I think the experience matters more than graphical quality. The problem is that Ubisoft used extremely exaggerated marketing" - Lucas Carvalho
It is worth remembering that, despite the controversies, Watch Dogs was nominated for almost two hundred awards and won several of them, and that reviews from leading sites around the world averaged eight points. They praised the combat; the computer-hacking system, through which the protagonist could view data on practically any character on his smartphone; good graphics, with a faithful recreation of Chicago; simple and intuitive gameplay; and a possible effort by the company to keep the game free of bugs and camera problems. On the negative side, they mentioned stereotyped characters, tedious missions, a predictable story, and constant "slowdowns," or the famous framerate drops.
Watch Dogs was released for sale on several platforms. Versions dubbed and subtitled in Brazilian Portuguese are also available.
