In the wake of a massive shakeup at Ubisoft, one that saw several game cancellations, including the long-in-development Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake canceled, along with a restructuring of its core franchises and layoffs, the future of Watch Dogs, a franchise once seen as a potential future pillar of the company, is seemingly in limbo.
Speaking during a recent episode of Insider Gaming’s podcast, in which Ubisoft’s future prospects were discussed at length, Tom Henderson stated that, following the release of Watch Dogs Legion, the team behind it moved onto a different project that was not Watch Dogs-related and was ultimately canceled.
As far as I’m aware at this moment in time, the Watch Dogs IP is completely dead.
Immediately following Henderson’s statement that Watch Dogs as an IP was dead, another notable insider, shinobi602, took to ResetEra to offer their own take on the situation.
“Not exactly,” they wrote in response to clips of Henderson’s podcast.
When asked if they were referring to Watch Dogs video games or the film project, shinobi602 said, “I am not talking about a movie.”
The confusion about Watch Dogs didn’t stop there, as in a Reddit thread, Henderson believed shinobi602 was referring to “Watch Dogs Coterie,” a rumored project that, per Henderson, “it’s nothing more than people who like the franchise, concept art, basic R&D, etc. at this moment in time.”
Ideas like that, according to Henderson, are always discussed because of the passion teams have, but until a “greenlight” is given, they are just that, ideas.
“If he’s not referring to the Coterie, then I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Henderson added.
Watch Dogs Could’ve Been The Modern Assassin’s Creed We All Wanted
Watch Dogs could’ve been the perfect way to bring the fight to Abstergo, but Ubisoft kept dancing around the Assassin’s Creed elephant in the room.
Naturally, things didn’t end there, with shinobi602 taking one final stand on what they believe about Watch Dogs, writing in response to Henderson on ResetEra, “That’s not what I’m referring to, but that’s the last thing I’ll say on it.”
Which is to say, if you’ve been keeping up to this point, then Watch Dogs is either dead and simply an IP that has a lot of passion internally around it, or it’s actually alive and actively being worked on.
With Only Three Games, Watch Dogs Is Quickly Reaching Cult Classic Status
Originally released in 2014, Watch Dogs was designed to be not only Ubisoft’s next major franchise, but one of gaming’s next big pillars. Unfortunately, its debut wasn’t nearly as well-received or 1:1 as its initial reveal trailers had positioned it.
It was followed up by a sequel, Watch Dogs 2, in 2016, one that was a bit better received and closer to the jump between Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed 2. The franchise then took a hiatus until 2020, when Watch Dogs Legion was released, a title that introduced ambitious new mechanics but fell short, becoming the “worst-reviewed” title in the franchise.
Since then, we’ve not had a new game, but a film wrapped up production in 2024, one helmed by Mathieu Turi, though a release date has not been set.
- Released
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May 26, 2014
- ESRB
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M For Mature // Blood, Game Experience May Change During Online Play, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Developer(s)
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Ubisoft Montreal
- Engine
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havok
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
If Ubisoft Can’t Remake A PS2 Game, How Can We Trust It To Do Anything?
The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake has officially been cancelled.
