Breakdown
- A gaming insider claims Watch Dogs is "dead and buried"
- Ubisoft has reportedly canceled a battle royale based on the IP
- Watch Dogs never made the impact Ubisoft wanted
It looks like Ubisoft is done with the Watch Dogs franchise, as reports are claiming that the open-world hacker series is now “dead and buried.” While Ubisoft didn’t send the memo, it’s not too hard to believe that the company would give up on the series, due to continued low sales.
Gaming insider and well-known leaker j0nathan reveals that we won’t be seeing a new entry in the franchise for the foreseeable future. The leaker says sales of Watch Dogs: Legion were a major factor in this decision, as the current-gen open-world title failed to make a sales or critical impact.
Ubisoft also reportedly canceled a “fairly original” battle royale using the game’s IP, which would have been interesting to see. However, with gamers already getting tired of most live-service titles, we doubt this IP would have done enough to stand out from the pack.
Despite Ubisoft’s marketing for each title, it seems that the Watch Dogs franchise just didn’t interest players enough after three entries. Not helping that lack of interest is the company’s frequent release of open-world games, with each one feeling more derivative.
That’s not to say Ubisoft will stop making open-world games, as the company is still going ahead with its release for Star Wars Outlaws, the franchise’s first open-world title. Still, with more unique games like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and The Rogue Prince of Persia coming, it seems Ubisoft does want to branch out a bit.
Older gamers will remember the hype surrounding Ubisoft’s first Watch Dogs when it was announced for the then-new PS4 and Xbox One systems. Unfortunately, that hype died down after release, as the game quickly became an example of developers releasing “fake” gameplay trailers. That stink never really left the series, which is a shame because they’re all solid open-world games, with Watch Dogs: Legion even having some interesting gameplay ideas.
Fans can try out all of the Watch Dogs games on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC.
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