[00:00] The use of computer-run industrial control&nbsp; systems has grown exponentially over the last&nbsp;&nbsp; decade and change. Such infrastructures&nbsp; help cities and nations around the world&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:12] manage power plants, surveillance, and&nbsp; countless other integral functions.&nbsp;&nbsp; But as sci-fi media has long predicted,&nbsp; interconnected supercomputers can facilitate&nbsp;&nbsp; just as many problems as they solve. In 2010,&nbsp; 100,000 Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:29] or SCADA, networks were discovered to have been&nbsp; targeted with the sophisticated Stuxnet virus,&nbsp;&nbsp; a digital weapon allegedly co-engineered by&nbsp; U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies to&nbsp;&nbsp; debilitate the Iranian nuclear program. Developer&nbsp; Ubisoft Montr al studied such headline news when&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:46] formulating its cautionary tale about the horrors&nbsp; of an interconnected world in Watch Dogs. &nbsp; Announced with an awe-inspiring trailer during&nbsp; E3 2012, Watch Dogs counted among first games&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:58] shown for the eighth console generation.&nbsp; While its final form failed to fulfill the&nbsp;&nbsp; promise of the original teaser, many would&nbsp; argue the title s gameplay mechanics still&nbsp;&nbsp; showcased the power of next-gen technology. These&nbsp; talking points undoubtedly boosted Watch Dogs s&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:13] sales numbers early on and helped it sustain&nbsp; long legs with over 10 million copies sold. &nbsp; But this incredible momentum waxed and waned over&nbsp; the course of the series s life cycle. Watch Dogs&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:25] 2 released to better reception, though it came&nbsp; and went with little fanfare. And the third&nbsp;&nbsp; installment found itself beset by game-breaking&nbsp; performance issues at launch. Watch Dogs has, thus&nbsp;&nbsp; far, managed to claw its way back from multiple&nbsp; downturns, raising questions as to how Ubisoft&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:42] will reinvent the hacking-focused series next. This is the Rise and Fall of Watch Dogs. &nbsp;
[02:03] The kernel of the idea that engendered Watch Dogs&nbsp; s conception stemmed from a conversation between&nbsp;&nbsp; Ubisoft Montr al developers four to five years&nbsp; before its 2014 release. In an interview with&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:16] the PlayStation Blog, Creative Director Jonathan&nbsp; Morin recalled how the discussion centered on&nbsp;&nbsp; the ease with which the average person stores&nbsp; private information in their phones and the&nbsp;&nbsp; life-changing implications of such ease of&nbsp; access. These conversations eventually grew&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:30] more thought-provoking, culminating in the&nbsp; development of Watch Dogs features like the&nbsp;&nbsp; Profiler a tool used for retrieving personal&nbsp; information from non-playable characters. &nbsp; Yet the basis of Watch Dogs s underlying premise&nbsp; dug deeper than simple data storage. Developers&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:46] also cited the shocking investigation into&nbsp; a presumed murder in Chicago as a source&nbsp;&nbsp; of inspiration, especially since police&nbsp; findings hinged on data analytics and CCTV&nbsp;&nbsp; footage. The death of Chicago s Board&nbsp; of Education President, Michael Scott,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:00] in November 2009 rocked the state of Illinois.&nbsp; Notably, the manner in which his remains were&nbsp;&nbsp; discovered led local police to believe his&nbsp; passing resulted from foul play. In pursuit&nbsp;&nbsp; of more concrete answers, authorities&nbsp; employed data analytics to probe through&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:15] hours of surveillance footage; their findings&nbsp; revealed the gentleman had taken his own life. &nbsp; According to Jonathan Morin, the Montr al-based&nbsp; studio extrapolated a bit from these events when&nbsp;&nbsp; deciding that Chicago would serve as the setting&nbsp; of its city-hacking, open-world adventure.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:31] The metropolis s reputation as a city in crisis&nbsp; rested at the forefront of the decision as well,&nbsp;&nbsp; given that its storied criminal history lent&nbsp; plausibility to the idea of a SCADA-like system&nbsp;&nbsp; being installed within city limits. That Chicago&nbsp; became America s most surveilled city after&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:48] Montr al selected the locale felt like a home&nbsp; run for the team, Morin later told Forbes. &nbsp; Watch Dogs version of the Windy City ran on&nbsp; an electronic infrastructure that developers&nbsp;&nbsp; dubbed the Central Operating System or ctOS.&nbsp; The mainframe was designed to control nearly&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:04] every aspect of the urban landscape s civic&nbsp; resources, from traffic lights and crime&nbsp;&nbsp; prediction technology to electricity grids&nbsp; and cellular communications. Combining the&nbsp;&nbsp; Orwellian-esque control motif with satire about&nbsp; society s willingness to surrender private details&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:19] through smart devices laid the groundwork&nbsp; for Watch Dogs s in-game mechanics. Thus,&nbsp;&nbsp; developers gave players the tools to suspend&nbsp; working bridges one minute, then steal money from&nbsp;&nbsp; a random person s bank account the next. No matter&nbsp; how simple or complex, each of these actions were&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:35] funneled through what Morin described as the&nbsp; project s toughest selling point hacking. &nbsp;
[04:51] The Montr al crew s initial pitch posed a&nbsp; fairly straightforward question What if I&nbsp;&nbsp; knew everything about you? Given Ubisoft&nbsp; s penchant for requiring a differentiator,&nbsp;&nbsp; a hook that avoids being another gimmick, hacking&nbsp; sat at the forefront of the proposal. The powers&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:06] that be weren t convinced at first, believing&nbsp; hacking had yet to reach mainstream audiences,&nbsp;&nbsp; certainly not enough to warrant it becoming the&nbsp; core pillar of a Triple-A video game. Developers&nbsp;&nbsp; deftly pivoted to a different tactic, prioritizing&nbsp; privacy and the moral conundrums presented to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:22] hackers. It seemed a shrewd move considering the&nbsp; attention being garnered by hacktivist collectives&nbsp;&nbsp; like Anonymous. The moment-to-moment challenge&nbsp; for Watch Dogs didn t rely on the execution of&nbsp;&nbsp; hacking, then; making the right judgment call&nbsp; proved far more instrumental to the experience. &nbsp;
[05:38] Consequently, the main gameplay&nbsp; feature demanded the utmost simplicity,&nbsp;&nbsp; achieved by mapping each hacking-related action&nbsp; to a single button. Removing complex controls&nbsp;&nbsp; represented a key point of interest for the&nbsp; development team. After all, the ability to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:52] take control of various electronic objects had to&nbsp; remain consistent when players operated vehicles,&nbsp;&nbsp; engaged in shootouts, or participated in&nbsp; any number of secondary mechanics. Morin&nbsp;&nbsp; stated in a Game Developer sit-down that in&nbsp; pursuing barebones hacking controls, the studio&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:08] even opted to excise shooting for a time, which&nbsp; helped further refine other gameplay elements. &nbsp; Though formulating exciting and intuitive&nbsp; hacking mechanics necessitated a long,&nbsp;&nbsp; iterative process, Watch Dogs s playable&nbsp; anti-hero came to life with relative ease.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:24] Ubisoft Montr al first examined protagonists&nbsp; in games like its own Assassin s Creed,&nbsp;&nbsp; realizing that contextualization hardly played a&nbsp; part in their basic behaviors. These characters&nbsp;&nbsp; typically navigated in-game worlds like robots,&nbsp; their movements seldom adjusting to changing&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:41] circumstances. Watch Dogs creators wanted to push&nbsp; the envelope in this regard with their new IP. &nbsp; Protagonist Aiden Pearce, thus, embodied&nbsp; the role of a streetwise character,&nbsp;&nbsp; someone keenly aware of his surroundings who&nbsp; thrived on going unnoticed. Everything from&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:56] Aiden s actions to his aesthetic design needed&nbsp; to reflect as much. He wore a mask to disguise&nbsp;&nbsp; himself from news media, for instance, pulling it&nbsp; up when engaging in illegal activities. Similarly,&nbsp;&nbsp; the character wore a hat whose brim he d tug down&nbsp; to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Morin&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:12] argued the baseball cap won out over a hoodie as&nbsp; such disguises had been done to death. Finally,&nbsp;&nbsp; the studio fitted its plainly-dressed hacker&nbsp; with a trench coat predominantly used for hiding&nbsp;&nbsp; various items. The coat also provided another&nbsp; way of showcasing wind physics, an aspect of the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:28] experience made possible by the Disrupt Engine. Sometime after acquiring the Driver IP, Ubisoft&nbsp;&nbsp; dedicated a team to building a brand-new driving&nbsp; game engine. As the publisher s North American&nbsp;&nbsp; President, Laurent Detoc, explained in an IGN&nbsp; interview, the driving-centric project ultimately&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:45] fell to the cutting room floor. As opposed to&nbsp; utilizing the AnvilNext Engine that powered&nbsp;&nbsp; Assassin s Creed 3, Ubisoft Montr al repurposed&nbsp; the abandoned driving engine, retrofitting it&nbsp;&nbsp; in a way to suit the needs of Watch Dogs. Senior Producer Dominic Guay broke the Disrupt&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:01] technology down into three pillars. The engine s&nbsp; surface layer revolved around dynamism, defined as&nbsp;&nbsp; the in-game simulation network that governed how&nbsp; systems interacted with one another to facilitate&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:13] branching reactions. This layer of the technology,&nbsp; in turn, guaranteed civilians would open umbrellas&nbsp;&nbsp; whenever it rained. Such a layer of immersion also&nbsp; informed clothing simulation, whereby high winds&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:25] tugging at an NPC's clothes would result&nbsp; in a character tightening their jacket. &nbsp; Guay devoted the second tier to impact,&nbsp; noting that, in the absence of a black and&nbsp;&nbsp; white morality system, Watch Dogs judged player&nbsp; behavior according to the city s perception of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:40] Aiden s actions. Animation Director Colin&nbsp; Graham described it as a reputation system,&nbsp;&nbsp; designed to ensure users never felt their&nbsp; decisions were guided by some invisible thread. &nbsp; Disrupt s third core tenet catered to seamless&nbsp; connectivity to the game s multiplayer component,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:56] which required neither loading nor matchmaking.&nbsp; In general, Ubisoft Montr al devised an online&nbsp;&nbsp; suite for Watch Dogs that augmented the action.&nbsp; One player could accept a contract with another&nbsp;&nbsp; s name on it, infiltrate their target s world, and&nbsp; wait for the perfect opportunity to strike. This&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:13] optional game of cat and mouse further elevated&nbsp; the hacking conceit. Better still, the multiplayer&nbsp;&nbsp; suite worked across console generations,&nbsp; thanks to the Disrupt engine s flexibility. &nbsp; The technology behind Watch Dogs was built with&nbsp; then-next-gen consoles in mind, but accommodated&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:30] the needs of PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware. And in&nbsp; an attempt to create as much parity between the&nbsp;&nbsp; console generations as possible, the Montr al&nbsp; group made certain the core experience played&nbsp;&nbsp; the same on all platforms. On PC, PS4, and Xbox&nbsp; One, the differences manifested via improvements&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:47] to particle simulation, shaders, wind, water,&nbsp; and AI behavior. Ubisoft showcased these&nbsp;&nbsp; next-gen enhancements and more to great applause&nbsp; during Watch Dogs s first public showing, yet the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:00] showcase would eventually prove equally beneficial&nbsp; and detrimental to the IP s initial outing. &nbsp;
[10:13] Ubisoft s E3 2012 media briefing boasted&nbsp; more than its share of heavy hitters,&nbsp;&nbsp; with the likes of Assassin s Creed 3 and Far Cry&nbsp; 3 taking center stage. By the end of the show,&nbsp;&nbsp; however, the public had taken a special&nbsp; interest in a newly revealed property.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:28] The Watch Dogs demonstration took inspiration from&nbsp; a YouTube video on the Stuxnet virus, and depicted&nbsp;&nbsp; a fictional world where private corporations&nbsp; profited from personal data collection through&nbsp;&nbsp; their power over a major city s Central Operating&nbsp; System. Jonathan Morin sold viewers on the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:44] promise of weaponizing a metropolis, using its&nbsp; supercomputer to uncover the citizenry s darkest&nbsp;&nbsp; secrets. But the title s awe-inspiring visual&nbsp; presentation especially turned heads, courtesy&nbsp;&nbsp; of its impressive dynamic lighting, wind physics,&nbsp; and stunning attention to the smallest details. &nbsp;
[11:01] At the time, Ubisoft could only confirm&nbsp; the project s release on PC, PS3, Wii U,&nbsp;&nbsp; and Xbox 360, yet speculation about its&nbsp; status as a next-gen title persisted&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:13] for several months due to the E3 demo s&nbsp; unbelievable visual fidelity. The publisher&nbsp;&nbsp; finally cleared the air at the PS4 reveal&nbsp; event in February 2013, wherein Watch Dogs&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:25] reappeared as a PS4 title slated to arrive&nbsp; with the console s launch later that year. &nbsp; News of the inevitable Xbox One version hit the&nbsp; airwaves a few months thereafter but not before&nbsp;&nbsp; Ubisoft came under fire for the game s appalling&nbsp; list of special edition packages. Four different&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:42] Collector s Editions were announced in Europe, for&nbsp; instance, neither of which contained every piece&nbsp;&nbsp; of supplemental content. And multiple regions&nbsp; received exclusive DLC in certain editions,&nbsp;&nbsp; meaning players would have to purchase&nbsp; Collector s Editions from around the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:55] world to enjoy Watch Dogs in its entirety&nbsp; a commitment that would ve cost $1,200. &nbsp; Despite the glitz and glamour, Watch Dogs wasn&nbsp; t ready for primetime, evidenced by a delay that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:07] pushed the title out of its November 2013 release&nbsp; date to Spring 2014. An official statement from&nbsp;&nbsp; Ubisoft communicated a refusal to compromise on&nbsp; quality, as the publisher expected Watch Dogs&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:19] to embody the capabilities of next-gen gaming.&nbsp; Company CEO Yves Guillemot elaborated further,&nbsp;&nbsp; noting the importance of providing time for&nbsp; additional polish to a property slated to count&nbsp;&nbsp; among the perennial pillars of Ubisoft's financial&nbsp; performance. In short, projects such as Watch Dogs&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:36] would prove paramount to the French company s&nbsp; long-term goal of winning the next generation. &nbsp; The Montr al crew had different reasons&nbsp; for taking advantage of a protracted&nbsp;&nbsp; development cycle. Morin revealed one&nbsp; of the main motivating factors behind&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:49] the delay stemmed from some playtesters&nbsp; discovering complex systems too early,&nbsp;&nbsp; leading to unintended outcomes that disrupted the&nbsp; flow of the game. When it finally landed on store&nbsp;&nbsp; shelves in May 2014, these intricacies&nbsp; seemed the least of player concerns. &nbsp;
[13:17] Ubisoft unveiled the Watch Dogs release&nbsp; date in a March 2014 story trailer that&nbsp;&nbsp; quickly garnered backlash because of what many&nbsp; perceived as a visual downgrade. This discourse&nbsp;&nbsp; picked up steam when a NeoGAF post claiming&nbsp; to confirm the downgrade went viral online,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:33] presenting a side-by-side comparison of the 2012&nbsp; reveal video and 2014 story trailer. Would-be&nbsp;&nbsp; players and media outlets agreed there existed&nbsp; a notable difference between the two. Ubisoft&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:46] representatives were less inclined to admit as&nbsp; much; one PR manager went so far as to insist a&nbsp;&nbsp; downgrade would be ridiculous. Regardless, the&nbsp; change in graphical quality was irrefutable. &nbsp;
[13:58] A post-launch technical analysis from Digital&nbsp; Foundry concluded that lighting and reflection&nbsp;&nbsp; effects appeared less advanced in the final&nbsp; build. How wind simulation impacted in-game&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:11] objects had taken a hit during development,&nbsp; as well. The number of NPCs on-screen along&nbsp;&nbsp; with their once robust set of behaviors&nbsp; similarly lacked the technical depth shown&nbsp;&nbsp; in 2012. These downgrades even applied to&nbsp; high-end PCs with Ultra settings enabled. &nbsp;
[14:27] Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot addressed the matter&nbsp; in July 2015, telling The Guardian that Watch&nbsp;&nbsp; Dogs s downgrade controversy forced the publisher&nbsp; to adjust tactics and only show demos playable on&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:39] a game s target machines. Senior Producer&nbsp; Dominic Guay later explained the rationale&nbsp;&nbsp; behind the graphical shift, which hinged on the&nbsp; fact that developers knew nothing about Sony s and&nbsp;&nbsp; Microsoft s eighth-console generation plans during&nbsp; the early days of production. Therefore, despite&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:55] building Watch Dogs for next-gen technology,&nbsp; Ubisoft Montr al had to predict new hardware&nbsp;&nbsp; capabilities, a practice that meant running&nbsp; the original demo on a very powerful PC. &nbsp;
[15:07] Interestingly, if the studio had its way, Watch&nbsp; Dogs would not have premiered at E3 2012 in any&nbsp;&nbsp; capacity. Speaking with EDGE Magazine, Jonathan&nbsp; Morin claimed Guillemot pushed for the project&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:19] s trade show appearance, though developers&nbsp; expressed trepidation because it felt a bit&nbsp;&nbsp; early. Morin added that the Ubisoft executive&nbsp; s intuition paid off in hindsight. The title&nbsp;&nbsp; launched to middling critic and user reception,&nbsp; yet neither that nor the drama surrounding its&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:35] visuals impacted sales. Early data showed&nbsp; Watch Dogs broke Ubisoft sales records in&nbsp;&nbsp; its first 24 hours at retail; within a week,&nbsp; the hacking-centric adventure eclipsed four&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:47] million units sold worldwide. The French publisher&nbsp; suddenly had yet another megahit on its hands. &nbsp; Watch Dogs s debut enjoyed boundless success&nbsp; upon release. On the back of a pre-delay budget&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:03] totaling more than $68 million, a figure that&nbsp; didn t include marketing spend, the title moved 10&nbsp;&nbsp; million units ahead of its one-year anniversary.&nbsp; Along with a diversified holiday 2014 lineup that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:15] included two Assassin s Creeds and Far Cry 4,&nbsp; the new IP drove Ubisoft to historic earnings&nbsp;&nbsp; for the third quarter of the 2014-2015 fiscal&nbsp; year. Thus, as the investment in open-world&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:27] games continued to pay dividends, Watch Dogs&nbsp; became a pivotal part of the company s growth. &nbsp; Not all facets of the newly minted franchise&nbsp; would return for its inevitable follow-up entry.&nbsp;&nbsp; The graphical downgrade aside, Aiden Pearce,&nbsp; the somber Chicago setting, and lackluster&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:43] storytelling received the bulk of the criticism&nbsp; leveled against Watch Dogs. Ubisoft Montr al took&nbsp;&nbsp; note of the scorn, with Senior Producer Dominic&nbsp; Guay spending hours combing through NeoGAF&nbsp;&nbsp; threads for user feedback. Guay told GameSpot&nbsp; the biggest takeaway was that players never&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:00] found the game world believable. The bustling&nbsp; city of Chicago felt flat instead of lively, and&nbsp;&nbsp; the revenge-seeking plot with its brooding main&nbsp; character pulled many out of the experience. &nbsp;
[17:12] Watch Dogs 2 addressed each critique head-on,&nbsp; resulting in a livelier setting and a younger,&nbsp;&nbsp; more enthusiastic protagonist. Notably, the&nbsp; San Francisco setting counted among the first&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:24] decisions made about the sequel, an easy choice&nbsp; given the Montr al crew s eagerness to design a&nbsp;&nbsp; world based on a sunnier locale. That the Bay Area&nbsp; s tech culture has long been heralded as a hub of&nbsp;&nbsp; innovation further secured its consideration as&nbsp; the ideal backdrop for a narrative structured&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:40] around technology-based conspiracies. While San Francisco couldn t be built to&nbsp;&nbsp; scale because of its overwhelming size and legal&nbsp; issues concerning certain buildings, Watch Dogs 2&nbsp;&nbsp; creators did their best to capture the spirit&nbsp; of the metropolis. The Watch Dogs version of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:54] the Bay, consequently, encompassed Oakland, San&nbsp; Francisco proper, a scaled down Silicon Valley,&nbsp;&nbsp; and a portion of Marin County, the latter of which&nbsp; made the cut due to its sandbox type of feel. &nbsp;
[18:06] After settling on a central location, the&nbsp; studio knew a young hacker boasting a hacker&nbsp;&nbsp; s motivation should constitute the glue that tied&nbsp; the narrative together. Ubisoft Montr al quickly&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:18] using the series Anonymous analogue DedSec&nbsp; for tackling big data concerns. An African&nbsp;&nbsp; American man from Oakland who d witnessed racial&nbsp; injustice and was framed for a cybercrime anchored&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:33] the next phase of the then-nascent property. While youth and race differentiated Watch Dogs&nbsp;&nbsp; 2 s Marcus Holloway from Aiden Pearce,&nbsp; Marcus additionally shifted the tone,&nbsp;&nbsp; his charm and light-hearted disposition reflecting&nbsp; the new game s presentation. It made sense, then,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:49] that where Aiden s lone wolf approach mirrored his&nbsp; grim history, Marcus s personable characteristics&nbsp;&nbsp; opened the door for an emphasis on teamwork. And&nbsp; the collaborative bent paired well with the new&nbsp;&nbsp; character s passion for activism, giving&nbsp; rise to DedSec s mission of facilitating&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:04] social change by exposing corruption. These changes to the Watch Dogs blueprint&nbsp;&nbsp; couldn t only manifest in character work and&nbsp; storytelling, though. Player feedback on the&nbsp;&nbsp; original suggested the sequel demanded&nbsp; gameplay improvements on multiple fronts.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:17] To the delight of many, one update forced the&nbsp; abandonment of a long-running Ubisoft staple. &nbsp;
[19:31] Assassin s Creed and Far Cry reinvigorated the&nbsp; open-world genre in myriad ways, yet the so-called&nbsp;&nbsp; Ubisoft towers these brands introduced became a&nbsp; source of great frustration as developers from&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:43] across the industry repurposed the mechanic in&nbsp; their own sandbox adventures. Generally speaking,&nbsp;&nbsp; the mechanic functioned such that accessing&nbsp; towers on a map unlocked missions and points&nbsp;&nbsp; of interests in surrounding areas. Watch Dogs&nbsp; boasted a similar gameplay system. Rather than&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:58] reappropriate towers for the sequel,&nbsp; Ubisoft Montr al booted them in favor&nbsp;&nbsp; of a revised approach to story progression. Instead of linking progression to story beats&nbsp;&nbsp; or set locations, developers devised a system&nbsp; wherein players could focus on exploring.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[20:14] Virtual followers who supported the DedSec cause&nbsp; represented the linchpin of said system. Speaking&nbsp;&nbsp; to VentureBeat, Dominic Guay explained that&nbsp; building progression around DedSec s online&nbsp;&nbsp; following seemed natural considering how people in&nbsp; the real world viewed their personal progress on&nbsp;&nbsp;
[20:30] social media. Attracting followers when completing&nbsp; activities was designed to function like earning&nbsp;&nbsp; XP, in that a progressively larger following begat&nbsp; bigger operations and new cooperative activities. &nbsp;
[20:42] In spite of its public-facing social endeavors,&nbsp; DedSec still needed a semblance of anonymity and&nbsp;&nbsp; mystique. The sequel s creative leads tapped&nbsp; into the DIY nature of hacker culture, fitting&nbsp;&nbsp;
[20:54] characters like Wrench with digital masks, while&nbsp; borrowing visual aesthetics from the Animated GIF&nbsp;&nbsp; Culture and 1940s pulp comics when crafting the&nbsp; collective s propaganda material. Art Director&nbsp;&nbsp; Mathieu Leduc insisted these touches added flavor&nbsp; and attitude to DedSec and the overall experience,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:11] elements the previous title arguably lacked. The Do-It-Yourself motif also aided in&nbsp;&nbsp; differentiating Marcus gameplay style. Watch&nbsp; Dogs s original anti-hero used a nightstick&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:23] as his weapon of choice; the Watch Dogs 2 lead s&nbsp; agility combined with online research inspired the&nbsp;&nbsp; Montr al firm to devise a DIY weapon fit for&nbsp; a more athletic fighting style. As a result,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:35] Marcus adopted a billiard ball with a length&nbsp; of rope wound through it as his primary&nbsp;&nbsp; melee weapon. And in response to criticism&nbsp; about Aiden s constant use of lethal force,&nbsp;&nbsp; Guay and Game Director Danny B langer said the&nbsp; crew thought it prudent to equip the younger&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:49] hacker with a taser for non-lethal engagements,&nbsp; effectively allowing for no-kill playthroughs. &nbsp; Each element worked to expand upon the brand&nbsp; s core conceit, which the first outing only&nbsp;&nbsp; delivered to a degree. For instance, the number&nbsp; of hackable machines and smart devices at Aiden&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:05] s disposal was severely limited compared to&nbsp; the possibilities presented to Marcus. Ubisoft&nbsp;&nbsp; made the effort to work more closely with real&nbsp; hackers, too, hiring them as consultants who&nbsp;&nbsp; validated scripts and helped tweak gameplay&nbsp; mechanics. Of course, Watch Dogs couldn t&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:19] replicate the challenge of hacking, but the&nbsp; action wasn t about complex processes so much&nbsp;&nbsp; as it centered on the creativity of what players&nbsp; could do with the skillset at their fingertips. &nbsp;
[22:35] On top of elevated storytelling and hacking&nbsp; capabilities, Watch Dogs 2 received a number&nbsp;&nbsp; of other game-changing adjustments. Driver&nbsp; creator Ubisoft Reflections helped revamp&nbsp;&nbsp; the previously dismal driving controls. An&nbsp; overhauled multiplayer component allowed users&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:49] to enjoy specially designed missions with fellow&nbsp; players, further distancing the San Francisco-set&nbsp;&nbsp; romp from the relatively lifeless streets of&nbsp; Chicago. Better yet, according to Dominic Guay,&nbsp;&nbsp; the cooperative mode used an algorithm to&nbsp; increase the chances of players encountering&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:04] during compatible times of the day. The sequel especially benefitted from being&nbsp;&nbsp; built from the ground up for PS4, Xbox One, and&nbsp; higher-end PCs. As such, fans were assured they&nbsp;&nbsp; had no reason to worry over another graphical&nbsp; downgrade controversy. Guay imparted as much&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:21] during an interview with The Evening Standard,&nbsp; informing the publication that an evolved version&nbsp;&nbsp; of the Disrupt engine significantly expanded upon&nbsp; the newer game s graphics. Players could, in turn,&nbsp;&nbsp; expect realistic lighting and effects, in addition&nbsp; to a larger and better detailed cityscape. &nbsp;
[23:38] Disrupt s upgraded technology presented&nbsp; Ubisoft Montr al with an opportunity to&nbsp;&nbsp; reevaluate the relationship between the player&nbsp; character and the in-game world, as well. Watch&nbsp;&nbsp; Dogs 2 broke away from centering the world&nbsp; around the protagonist and their behavior,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:51] no longer focusing NPC reactions on the user s&nbsp; antics. Developers figured non-playable characters&nbsp;&nbsp; should also react to each other, and created&nbsp; situations wherein one Bay Area citizen might&nbsp;&nbsp; pick a fight or call the cops on someone else.&nbsp; Higher-intelligence NPCs served as but another&nbsp;&nbsp;
[24:08] beat of immersion that helped breathe life into&nbsp; the digital representation of San Francisco. &nbsp; Each enhancement introduced in Watch Dogs&nbsp; 2 stemmed from an internal belief that the&nbsp;&nbsp; sequel needed to one up its predecessor.&nbsp; Ubisoft s Senior VP of Sales and Marketing,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[24:22] Tony Key, addressed this notion long&nbsp; before the second project s announcement,&nbsp;&nbsp; telling GameSpot a potential follow-up had to&nbsp; bring something innovative and entertaining&nbsp;&nbsp; to the table, lest the brand fall into&nbsp; early stagnation. Lucky for Ubisoft,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[24:36] the Marcus Holloway-starring adventure injected&nbsp; the IP with a much-needed burst of energy. &nbsp; Ubisoft publicly mentioned Watch Dogs 2 for&nbsp; the first time during a February 2016 earnings&nbsp;&nbsp;
[24:51] briefing, in which the publisher expressed&nbsp; intentions of shipping the sequel before the end&nbsp;&nbsp; after photos of a gift box mailed to influencers&nbsp; made the rounds on social media. It was in a Watch&nbsp;&nbsp; Dogs-dedicated livestream that the French company&nbsp; formally introduced the world to Marcus Holloway&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:04] and the reimagined San Francisco Bay Area. The development team s insistence that it&nbsp;&nbsp; listened to feedback coupled with the new&nbsp; protagonist and setting excited newcomers&nbsp;&nbsp; and fans alike. A more in-depth showing at E3&nbsp; 2016 drummed up quite a bit of anticipation,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:21] too. And the brief span of time between the&nbsp; project s reveal and November 2016 due date&nbsp;&nbsp; eliminated the drawn out waiting period that had&nbsp; plagued the original title s marketing cycle. &nbsp; Many felt Ubisoft Montr al s efforts paid off&nbsp; since the Watch Dogs franchise s sophomore&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:37] endeavor received marginally better reviews&nbsp; than its gloomier predecessor. The shift to&nbsp;&nbsp; a less self-serious tone narrowed the barrier&nbsp; to immersion, for one. A greater emphasis on&nbsp;&nbsp; hacking mechanics as well as an easy-going&nbsp; and likable lead character also sealed the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:51] deal. But the storytelling still suffered&nbsp; in places, often clashing with over-the-top&nbsp;&nbsp; gameplay antics while subjectively failing&nbsp; to hold player interest long-term. &nbsp; Though widely deemed a massive leap forward,&nbsp; soft launch sales indicated not all fans of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:06] the original were willing to give the IP&nbsp; a second chance. In the UK, for instance,&nbsp;&nbsp; data estimates suggested Watch Dogs 2 moved less&nbsp; than 80,000 units in its debut week, a stark&nbsp;&nbsp; contrast from the 380,000 units that Watch Dogs&nbsp; pushed during its first seven days. The United&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:23] States NPD charts showed the San Francisco-based&nbsp; adventure premiered at number eight in November,&nbsp;&nbsp; due in large part to a month whose sales&nbsp; were dominated by Call of Duty, Battlefield,&nbsp;&nbsp; and Pok mon Sun and Moon. A Ubisoft representative&nbsp; said in a statement that other Triple-A titles had&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:40] similarly struggled to start strong, but the&nbsp; publisher believed generally positive critic&nbsp;&nbsp; and user reviews would bolster Watch Dogs&nbsp; 2 s commercial success in the long run. &nbsp; This belief in the game s staying power eventually&nbsp; bore fruit. During a February 2017 financial call,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:55] Yves Guillemot cited good word-of-mouth as&nbsp; the reason for an incredible surge in sales&nbsp;&nbsp; that proved integral to the brand s long-term&nbsp; future. It marked the beginning of a long tail,&nbsp;&nbsp; considering Watch Dogs 2 later featured on the&nbsp; list of 11 Ubisoft games that sold 10-plus million&nbsp;&nbsp;
[27:12] units throughout the PS4 and Xbox One era. As that era of consoles wound down, discourse&nbsp;&nbsp; regarding next-generation technology swelled&nbsp; with industry pundits and players musing over the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[27:26] questionable necessity of even higher fidelity&nbsp; graphics. But creators had their sights set on&nbsp;&nbsp; far more than photorealistic visuals and increased&nbsp; frame rates. Veterans from outfits such as Naughty&nbsp;&nbsp; Dog proposed the true measure of next-gen&nbsp; consoles would be rooted in a developer s&nbsp;&nbsp;
[27:42] ability to design intricate in-game simulations&nbsp; capable of fostering unparalleled levels of&nbsp;&nbsp; immersion. The third Watch Dogs stepped up as one&nbsp; of the first titles to realize these ambitions. &nbsp;
[27:54] Splinter Cell and Far Cry 2 scribe Clint Hocking&nbsp; spearheaded the project, his penchant for&nbsp;&nbsp; designing experiences with emergent game systems&nbsp; helping Ubisoft fulfill the original promise of&nbsp;&nbsp; Watch Dogs. Hocking exited Ubisoft two years after&nbsp; shipping Far Cry 2 in 2008, then lent his talents&nbsp;&nbsp;
[28:11] to Valve, Amazon, and LucasArts. Ubisoft welcomed&nbsp; the veteran game designer back with open arms&nbsp;&nbsp; in 2015 when the Toronto studio s Managing&nbsp; Director, Alex Parizeau, consulted Hocking&nbsp;&nbsp;
[28:23] about leading production on the what would become&nbsp; Watch Dogs: Legion. The wheels began turning from&nbsp;&nbsp; that point forward, as ideas involving playable&nbsp; NPCs and real population simulation cemented the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[28:35] building blocks of the franchise s most ambitious&nbsp; adventure, a journey whose thesis argued that&nbsp;&nbsp; anybody could be a hero in times of unrest. Upon adopting the novel Play as Anyone motif,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[28:47] Ubisoft Toronto developed a need for new&nbsp; technologies to support its idiosyncratic&nbsp;&nbsp; vision. Hocking divulged to The Washington Post&nbsp; that the initial two years of production consisted&nbsp;&nbsp; of several prototypes that died on the vine; given&nbsp; the frequency at which new challenges emerged,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[29:02] leaders found high morale difficult to maintain&nbsp; amongst staff. Yet, Lead Programmer Chris Dragert&nbsp;&nbsp; claimed the crew reveled in the problem-solving&nbsp; nature of Legion s development. Sit-downs where&nbsp;&nbsp; programmers gathered to solve technical and&nbsp; design obstacles were called The Beast meetings,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[29:17] a moniker that more or less understated the&nbsp; immense task of building the Census System. &nbsp; As the massive relational database&nbsp; behind Legion s in-game simulations,&nbsp;&nbsp; the Census came to life fairly early on. The&nbsp; system spawned NPCs like every other game,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[29:33] except profiling a character prompted the&nbsp; relational database to generate a backstory&nbsp;&nbsp; for characters in real time. A profiled NPC then&nbsp; became a persistent part of the player s world,&nbsp;&nbsp; someone possessing a unique look, lifestyle,&nbsp; schedule, and relations to their fellow NPCs.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[29:49] If recruited to DedSec, the non-playable character&nbsp; morphed into a playable operative, complete with&nbsp;&nbsp; specific abilities and a user-assigned class. Unsurprisingly, logistical problems with crafting&nbsp;&nbsp;
[30:01] the Census arose across several departments&nbsp; due to the sheer number of variables. Unknowns&nbsp;&nbsp; regarding player behavior forced developers&nbsp; to rethink open-world design standards. Lead&nbsp;&nbsp; Game Designer Liz England disclosed in&nbsp; a Washington Post interview that Ubisoft&nbsp;&nbsp;
[30:15] Toronto didn t concern itself with predicting&nbsp; user-related conduct so much as it focused on&nbsp;&nbsp; making room for every possible scenario. Animators also had to contend with creating&nbsp;&nbsp; cinematics for characters whose physical features&nbsp; and attitude were a mystery. A solve for this&nbsp;&nbsp;
[30:30] peculiar dilemma manifested as novel technology&nbsp; structured around predictability. Put simply,&nbsp;&nbsp; the tech in question worked such that a cutscene&nbsp; starring two characters with different lengths of&nbsp;&nbsp; dialogue could dynamically expand and compress&nbsp; itself. Animations would speed up or slow down,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[30:46] as a result; similarly, Legion s&nbsp; dynamic lighting rig could change&nbsp;&nbsp; in real time based on varying skin tones. The need to account for dozens upon dozens of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[31:02] possible story outcomes affected the scriptwriting&nbsp; process, as well. Legion boasted five primary&nbsp;&nbsp; questlines at the start, which complicated&nbsp; the narrative. To better streamline things,&nbsp;&nbsp; Lead Writer Cameron Labine said DedSec entered&nbsp; the role of protagonist, allowing the creative&nbsp;&nbsp;
[31:18] team to guide the hacker group through a&nbsp; traditional hero s journey irrespective&nbsp;&nbsp; of which characters formed the crew. Writing the script unraveled a whole host&nbsp;&nbsp; of other hard-to-manage issues, all tackled by&nbsp; a massive writing department. Many writers were&nbsp;&nbsp;
[31:32] assigned a specific persona to draft, such as a&nbsp; tailor or mechanic. Each persona then received&nbsp;&nbsp; myriad traits for diversification s sake, adding&nbsp; to the combinations of animations, skillsets,&nbsp;&nbsp; voices, backstories, and procedurally-generated&nbsp; body and face types that supplied the cornerstone&nbsp;&nbsp;
[31:49] on which the Census conjured every NPC. All&nbsp; told, the script went through multiple drafts,&nbsp;&nbsp; the entire process informed by a technique&nbsp; wherein a first draft with generic lines&nbsp;&nbsp; delineated the structure of conversation. Writers&nbsp; then revised subsequent iterations of the script,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[32:05] exchanging generic dialogue sequences&nbsp; to befit every possible character. &nbsp; Infinite diversity was impossible, of&nbsp; course, and developers never hid the fact&nbsp;&nbsp; that players would inevitably encounter&nbsp; repeat faces, voices, and behaviors.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[32:20] Still, the system featured enough variables to&nbsp; blur the lines quite a bit, making for experiences&nbsp;&nbsp; bolstered by a semblance of reality. And if&nbsp; Ubisoft Toronto wanted the NPC-driven world to&nbsp;&nbsp; truly feel alive, it had to stick the landing on&nbsp; realism. A player couldn t kill a woman s husband,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[32:37] then expect to successfully recruit&nbsp; the widow as a DedSec operative. &nbsp; These relational dynamics between NPCs were&nbsp; additionally heightened by the world they&nbsp;&nbsp; occupied a near-future, post-Brexit London. The&nbsp; team had the city locked in as Legion s setting&nbsp;&nbsp;
[32:52] a year and a half before the Brexit vote; however,&nbsp; the decision posed a great source of inspiration&nbsp;&nbsp; since Hocking believed creators across all mediums&nbsp; bore the responsibility of examining contemporary&nbsp;&nbsp; events to create something meaningful for&nbsp; audiences to engage with. Ubisoft Toronto answered&nbsp;&nbsp;
[33:08] the call by imaging a dystopian post-Brexit&nbsp; London governed by an authoritarian regime. &nbsp; Naturally, the Brexit talking point, along with&nbsp; the focus on civil unrest and a surveillance&nbsp;&nbsp; state, incited controversy. Within days of&nbsp; Watch Dogs: Legion s E3 2019 announcement,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[33:25] pundits on BBC s Politics Live show labeled it&nbsp; a paranoid apocalyptic fever dream. But this&nbsp;&nbsp; portrayal of a possible near future, even if&nbsp; hyperbolic, provided the perfect backdrop for&nbsp;&nbsp;
[33:37] a DedSec-led resistance movement. Unfortunately&nbsp; for the game s creators, its troubled launch&nbsp;&nbsp; left little room for discussion about&nbsp; the content and overarching themes. &nbsp;
[33:53] Originally scheduled to arrive by the end of&nbsp; March 2020, Watch Dogs: Legion and two other&nbsp;&nbsp; Triple-A titles were delayed by several&nbsp; months following the disappointing sales&nbsp;&nbsp; for The Division 2 and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint.&nbsp; Both Tom Clancy-branded games debuted in 2019,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[34:09] their subpar performance a product of ineffective&nbsp; gameplay innovations and live-service-related&nbsp;&nbsp; shortcomings. Because The Division and Ghost&nbsp; Recon sequels led to less-than-expected earnings,&nbsp;&nbsp; Ubisoft gave Legion extra time to stew in&nbsp; hopes the Toronto team could deliver an&nbsp;&nbsp;
[34:25] optimal experience. The extended production&nbsp; period may have helped in some respects,&nbsp;&nbsp; yet technical issues pervaded Watch&nbsp; Dogs: Legion when it landed in the&nbsp;&nbsp; fall of 2020 for Google Stadia, PC,&nbsp; last-gen, and next-gen consoles. &nbsp;
[34:40] Players on PC and last-gen consoles&nbsp; encountered rampant crashing problems&nbsp;&nbsp; at launch. PC users additionally fell victim&nbsp; to save file glitches that culminated in lost&nbsp;&nbsp; progress. It didn t take long for Ubisoft to&nbsp; prioritize addressing the game-breaking bugs,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[34:55] forcing Toronto to postpone its multiplayer&nbsp; update beyond the December 2020 release date.&nbsp;&nbsp; When the online cooperative modes finally hit&nbsp; consoles and Stadia in March 2021, Legion s PC&nbsp;&nbsp;
[35:07] user-base had to wait an extra nine days amid&nbsp; concerns about another game-crashing bug. &nbsp; The third Watch Dogs title performed well&nbsp; despite its many hiccups, breaking series&nbsp;&nbsp; records by selling 1.9 million digital units in&nbsp; just three days. In terms of the content itself,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[35:22] the technical flaws only plagued the&nbsp; London-set outing for so long. In fact,&nbsp;&nbsp; Legion enjoyed a robust post-launch content&nbsp; release schedule that included free and paid DLC,&nbsp;&nbsp; with the Season Pass containing story missions&nbsp; starring Aiden Pearce, Watch Dogs 2 s Wrench,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[35:38] and a non-canon member of the Assassin s Order. Such support ground to a halt in January 2022&nbsp;&nbsp; once Ubisoft confirmed that September 2021&nbsp; s 5.6 patch had marked the final update&nbsp;&nbsp;
[35:51] of consequence. The multiplayer suite would&nbsp; repeatedly cycle through seasons three, four,&nbsp;&nbsp; and five, however, providing some semblance of&nbsp; refreshed online offerings on a regular basis. &nbsp; Beyond Legion s recycled multiplayer seasons,&nbsp; what the future holds for Watch Dogs remains&nbsp;&nbsp;
[36:06] to be seen. Its rocky existence equates&nbsp; to genre-defining ideas packaged inside&nbsp;&nbsp; of arguably average-at-best adventures that&nbsp; stopped short of reaching their full potential.&nbsp;&nbsp; If Ubisoft still considers Watch Dogs vital to&nbsp; its portfolio, the inconsistent trajectory of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[36:22] the ctOS-powered property indicates it may have&nbsp; a few more growing pains to overcome.