Michael Pachter is a figure who’s usually at odds with those who love Nintendo, since he typically has terrible predictions for the company. It’s his job to weigh in on the video game industry for investors, so while he may often be wrong, sometimes the things he says make a lot of sense. In a note released yesterday after Ubisoft announced delays to Watch Dogs and poor sales for new titles, Pachter says he believes the delay was caused by strong holiday competition.
“We believe that management was also concerned about the strong competition for wallet share Watch Dogs faced at the holidays from Grand Theft Auto V, Battlefield 4, and a new Call of Duty, among others.”
It’s not hard to see why Pachter believes this, Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag was scheduled to release just a few short weeks before Watch Dogs. Both are open world action titles and sales of one could have cannibalized the other.
Despite the delays, Pachter believes that Ubisoft made the right decision.
“Given next-gen uncertainty and this very strong slate of competitors, we believe the two aforementioned delays were the right decision.”
How about you? Do you agree with Pachter for once? Let us know in the comments.
