I read this thread today (link), and I thought it was pretty interesting. It is well known that Watch Dogs is very important for Ubisoft's financials next fiscal year, so it seem natural they might be worried by possible negative reception.

But if the rumors are true, and the game is downgraded (and met with mixed critical reception), thus becoming a sales disappointment; how hard can that really hit Ubisoft?

They are giants in this gaming industry, and the company will not go down if a single project fails, but let's not forget what happened last year:

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/15/ubisoft-says-delayed-watch-dogs-the-crew-games-to-cause-full-year-operating-loss/?__lsa=0d07-fcda

They seemed to be reliant in Watch Dogs cashing big profits, and I'm sure they are expecting that this year as well. So do you think they might be in for tough and tight year if Watch Dogs fails to meet expectations?

ubisoft have been making this game for years, 6 if i remember correctly. its got a huge scale and aims to become a franchise. if the sales are disappointing, they didnt just lose lots of money from the game alone, but they lost the potential to make more money from the franchise it was supposed to be.
so yeah, this could hurt Ubisofts future plans as much as it hurt them financially.

I believe this would turn out to be like the AC franchise.

If that is true about developing a franchise I would be curious if any sequel plans are going forward or tentatively being put on hold given how much interest has wained in past several months.

I am not sure what the threshold for proiftability is for Watch Dogs, my guess would be 4-5 million across platforms. That said, it could see a sequel if they figure heavy lifting is done and can use assets to make a Watch Dogs 2 that only needs 1-2 million sales to recoup losses from the first. Hard to say.

I don't expect the game to flop, but I do expect it to fall short of what ever Ubisoft's expectations were for it a year ago.

It has a longer development time than GTAV!? You're joking right?...

According to this, it has been in development since 2009, which is still a lot of time.

http://www.gamingunion.net/news/development-on-watch-dogs-began-in-2009--9429.html

Didnt it start out as a car game and change.. ?. it seems its a big cluster fuck. trying to do to much and being made on to many platforms. Maybe it was just bad footage, might be awesome and review great. Sad that they caused so much issue for them self's.

It wont succeed in the long run. It looks boring to be honest, the gameplay and setting looks forced. I believe Ubisoft games, the big ones, can sell very well though. It's a very slick company. 6-7 million since this is a huge game and iwll sell also from the bargain bins in the long run even though it gets perhaps 82% Meta.

Overall it won't be the clear succes Ubisoft was hoping for thouh. Assassin's Creed will remain much bigger.

The Division, similarly being an ambitious prohject will be even less successful.

It's poised to be the AC of this Generation, for Ubisoft

There's also this rumor that the game has a $68 million development cost (btw apparently Destiny has a $140 million dev cost if the source is to be believed). If this is true, the number is most likely higher because of the multiple delays and it doesn't include marketing, I wouldn't be surprised if the development cost + marketing exceeds the $150 million mark.

So yeah I think this game is very very important to Ubisoft.