14 DAY TRIAL // Watch Dogs is officially available worldwide, and Ubisoft's Uplay service is incapable of handling the strain of PC users trying to download and play the game and console owners who want to score rewards and unlock more Uplay points.
I played and reviewed Watch Dogs on the PS4 ahead of its release yesterday, on May 27. I also got to experience a few hours of the game on one of our test PCs in order to see how it handles and whether or not the Nvidia-specific improvements were worthy of any praise.
However, yesterday, when the game started rolling out across all platforms (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One), I tried going back to it on different computers. While on some configurations things went smoothly, just like on the test PC, on others I encountered massive errors, like the disrupt_b64.dll crash that prevents you from actually playing the game.
However, later in the day the game became pretty much unplayable no matter the platform unless you went offline.
On the PC, the uPlay service was unavailable or refused to log you into the client program, sometimes even in offline mode. If, through some happenstance, you managed to connect to the experience, Ubisoft's shoddy servers blocked the game's downloading.
The problematic servers also caused issues when trying to start the game on PC, as the title still tried to connect to them even when you had Uplay in offline mode.
These issues spread to the actual consoles, as those playing on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, or Xbox One were unable to earn or spend their Uplay points on bonus rewards in the game, as this feature is tied directly to Ubisoft's own servers, not to the Sony or Microsoft ones.
Ubisoft's mistakes with Watch Dogs and Uplay are inexcusable. It's 2014 and there have already been a huge number of poor launches for games via online platforms, with the most resounding being SimCity on EA's Origin.
Considering Watch Dogs was eagerly awaited by millions of fans and the game was even offered for free with Nvidia graphics cards, it's just poor planning on behalf of Ubisoft to not prepare for launch day by ensuring that its servers are more than ready to handle the load.
If the company had any doubts, why not abandon Uplay and just put it on Steam, a service that's proven time and time again that it can handle big launches without so much as a hiccup.
What's more, yesterday only those with legal copies of the game were forced to endure Uplay's annoyances. Pirates with illegal versions that cracked the game's files circumvented the necessity for Uplay and just enjoyed the game as is, without worrying about Ubisoft's poor servers.