Ubisoft's Watch Dogs made its official debut at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last year and easily earned many "best of" awards from numerous publications.
Originally scheduled for a November release, the current and next-gen open world-based game is being delayed along with Playstation 4/ Xbox One-exclusive racer The Crew until the French publisher's next fiscal year; meaning sometime after April 20.
The move hurt Ubisoft as shares plummeted more than 25 percent to an eight-month low Wednesday after announcing the delays. According to reports, the publisher predicted an operating loss of between 40 million - 70 million euros as two of its titles misses the holiday season. Christmas sales accounted for half of Ubisoft's sales last year. Also damaging the Prince of Persia publisher's finances was the underwhelming performance of Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Rayman Legends, with both failing to reach their sales targets.
Ubisoft wanted its developers to improve both titles' quality, said Ubisoft's chief executive Yves Guillemot.
"In a world of mega-blockbusters, we have not come to the conclusion that the team needed additional time," explained Guillemot. "It's little bits of polish and fine-tuning, but they really matter -- we want these games to be the best out there for new-generation consoles."
Set in a fictional version of Chicago, Watch Dogs puts players in the role of Aiden Pearce, a skilled hacker straddling the line between hero and vigilante. Retailers assured those who purchased next-gen pre-order bundles of Watch Dogs will still receive the consoles on respective launch days.
The Crew was announced at this year's E3 in Los Angeles and is an open-world racer set within the entire United States. According to Ubisoft, the racing map is large enough for a drive between both east and west coast to take 90 minutes.
One Ubisoft game which is not being delayed, is Assassin's Creed IV, set for release October 29 for current-gen consoles and launch day for next-gen consoles.
