Ubisoft announces Watch Dogs

Ubisoft announced Watch Dogs at its E3 press briefing today, a new IP with a focus on cyber-crime and an apparent drop-in multiplayer system similar to The Crossing.

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Ubisoft ended its E3 press briefing with a brief look at a new IP titled Watch Dogs, in development from Ubisoft Montreal. The game has a focus on cyber-crime and hacking, and set in a time in the near future when everything electronic--from subways to power grids to traffic control systems--has been taken over by a central operating system run by private companies. The teaser?

"You will experience the power of controlling an entire system. What would you do with that kind of power?"

The extended gameplay session showed the hero, Aiden Pierce, casually hacking into civilian systems on the street, and setting a trap for a high-powered businessman, using himself as the bait, He hacks the phone of the target's personal aide, and then hacks into the traffic system to cause an accident to involve the businessman. A gunfight ensues, and Pierce accomplishes what he set out to do. As the demo seemed ready to come to a close, it turned the concept on its head with a hint at other players interacting in the game world in multiplayer, a la The Crossing.

"Watch Dogs goes beyond the limits of today's open-world games by giving players the ability to control an entire city," said creative director Jonathan Morin in the announcement. "In Watch Dogs, anything connected to the city's Central Operating System becomes a weapon. By pushing the boundaries, we can provide players with action and access to information on a scale that's never been seen in a video game before."

Ubisoft's press site lists the game for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, and Internet super sleuth Superannuation tweeted a NeoGAF post from an Ubisoft Montreal tools developer that the game is running on PS3 and Xbox 360 at the moment. But the game does seem to be taking a longer look to the future than most of the company's current crop. That means it may eventually be a next-generation game, which is also the scuttlebutt from a Polygon tweet.

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  • reply
    June 4, 2012 4:38 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Ubisoft announces Watch Dogs.

    Ubisoft announced Watch Dogs at its E3 press briefing today, a new IP with a focus on cyber-crime and an apparent drop-in multiplayer system similar to The Crossing.

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      June 4, 2012 5:20 PM

      GOTY.

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      June 4, 2012 5:48 PM

      Everything was awesome until the ending and the good old old old old old old old old old old gunning crap came back...

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        June 4, 2012 5:50 PM

        hey, if they can blend that with what we saw in the majority of the demo, it's golden

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        June 4, 2012 5:59 PM

        it's funny they dedicate so much to nailing down themes of games then go herp derp the barbarian at the last minute but you have to admit this looks better than most

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        June 5, 2012 8:41 AM

        My thoughts exactly. So disappointing that it ended with a shoot-out - just like The Last of Us. Both looked so interesting until that point. Not that the combat looked bad, it's just we've seen that again and again. Is it really so hard to do something different and not fall back on killing a bunch of people?

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          June 5, 2012 2:15 PM

          I think both was more trying to show some gun play. I'm sure both could have been done quite well without having to shoot.

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      June 4, 2012 6:22 PM

      I don't see why people hype its gameplay up.It was just some scripted events.Hacking is not groundbreaking.Why do we have a gun ? Why bother using gadgets if we can use a gun ?
      I don't even care about being presumtious, I usually see all the faults in the gameplay videos.

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        June 4, 2012 6:51 PM

        Did you see what the gadget was capable of? It looked like you could drop a train on the target if you didn't care about collateral damage.

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          June 4, 2012 6:59 PM

          Yeah that was the point of the video - it makes us think we know exactly how we can use it and how effective it is.I actually try to imagine how it would really feel in the game.How many situations can they think of where we have to use that much destruction.It's still going to be people we are fighting against.Mobs, assassination missions, some stealth, interrogations - Ubisoft won't bother with innovating these areas.Not to mention it will have bugs because of the impressive graphics we saw.I don't think Ubisoft Montreal is known for optimizing their games that well.

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      June 4, 2012 7:20 PM

      I like the concept, but history has taught me not to get excited for games like this these days. Will wait and see, hopefully it turns out to be genuinely great!

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        June 4, 2012 7:26 PM

        I'm glad to see a likeminded person.Hopefully it turns out to be good.

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        June 4, 2012 7:37 PM

        This kind of reminds me of the early Assassin's Creed demo when it was first premiered. That game did end up being gorgeous and a lot of fun... but didn't quite live up to the first video.

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          June 5, 2012 12:23 AM

          I think these guys aren't going to be biting off more than they can chew with this game, simply because it's not the insane leap in tech and design Assassin's Creed was -- remember that, before that game, no other game really had real-time crowds like that or climbing mechanics/animations quite like that, and it seems like in an effort to get that stuff down in AC1, they failed to flesh out and balance a lot of the gameplay aspects. Furthermore, Ubisoft Montreal hadn't done an open world game like that before, either.

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        June 5, 2012 12:15 AM

        I'm wandering on the cautious side as well, especially with Ubisoft.

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      June 4, 2012 8:25 PM

      Looking good, all the little details of the pedestrians and drivers in the wreckage in that intersection shown gameplay trailer was incredible. That alone is what sold me.

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      June 4, 2012 10:01 PM

      Hey,it's set in my hometown of Chicago,so that's enough to get me to play it.

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      June 4, 2012 11:25 PM

      Looks really good. I'm worried that there won't be enough variety in the hacking though. We shall see.

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      June 4, 2012 11:49 PM

      The most impressive thing is the fact that ubisoft got someone on it who knows how to write dialogues.

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        June 5, 2012 2:35 AM

        I know, right? That conversation actually had flow and character to it. Crazy!

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      June 5, 2012 1:44 AM

      6:05 - that is some of the best graphics I have ever seen anywhere, holy shit.

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      June 5, 2012 1:50 AM

      Finally a new original IP to be excited about.

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      June 5, 2012 2:06 AM

      As impressive looking to me as Prey 2. With all the connotations that carries

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      June 5, 2012 3:45 AM

      Looks interesting. Really nice graphics and audio too.

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      June 5, 2012 4:43 AM

      The best thing that I thought would come out of this e3 for me was Halo 4 and a Wii U Zelda game but I think this might have just topped them for me. I seriously hope that the whole demo wasn't scripted and this game actually comes out as good as we hope it will. The shooting? Meh, big deal not interested in shooting things anymore (Halo for story as odd as that may sound).

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      June 5, 2012 5:41 AM

      Looked great.

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      June 5, 2012 7:40 AM

      The game looks somewhat interesting. But personally I'm really sick and tired of third person games. If you can't switch to first person perspective then it'll definitely be a game to get for $3.50 during a Steam sale down the road.

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      June 5, 2012 8:12 AM

      i just the-of-sixth-sense'd.

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      June 5, 2012 8:18 AM

      Wow that was surprising. Looks very promising, can't wait to see/hear more.

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      June 5, 2012 8:56 AM

      [deleted]

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      June 5, 2012 9:36 AM

      [deleted]

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