The bad press started when Watch Dogs re-emerged with a new trailer and release date after dropping off the radar for five months. You're reading about these clandestine industry practices in an article about Watch Dogs not because it's necessarily guilty of the above, but because there's so little enforceable legislation forcing publishers to accurately represent final game quality.Ĭonsequently it was able to operate well within the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and still leave gamers feeling swindled.

'Ubisoft was able to operate well within the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and still leave gamers feeling swindled.' Killzone 2 is the original prankster here, showing us heart-stopping target footage in 2005 that the game duly failed to deliver on when it arrived.Īliens: Colonial Marines pulled a similar stunt during its development from 2008 to 2013, to the extent that Sega had to go back and put disclaimers on its trailers. Less common is the even murkier practice of presenting 'target render' footage of a game early in its development cycle that eventually reveals itself to be completely unrepresentative of the final version's quality bullshots in motion. It's such common practice these days that we don't even batter an eye when we see Sergio Ramos slide-tackling Alexis Sanchez mid-shot at an unplayable zoom level to promote the new FIFA.

Watch dogs release date