E3: Ubisoft confirms Watch Dogs movie, first look at Watch Dogs 2 gameplay
The film adaptation will follow on from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed and The Division film projects
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Ubisoft has got its sights set on Hollywood.
With Assassin's Creed nearing its release, and The Division landing star Jake Gyllenhaal; the publisher has confirmed Watch Dogs will indeed be coming to screen, following its original announcement nearly three years ago.
Adapting the game, Watch Dogs will presumably play with same themes of weaponised hacking, giving the action genre a technologically-enhanced boost; though it's a film that's invariably going to land a lot of comparison to the similarly hacker focused Mr. Robot television series.
It's a fairly bold move from Ubisoft; with Warcraft's disappointing box office returns doing little to build confidence that the video game curse could ever be broken. It does suggest a lot of faith in Justin Kurzel's work on Assassin's Creed; which certainly doesn't look like misplaced trust, with every morsel of footage released so far an absolutely tantalising look as visually striking as Kurzel's excellent Macbeth.
And, to remind us all they're still a game publisher at the end of the day, Ubisoft also released our first look at Watch Dogs 2. Confirmed last week, the game sequel looks wildly different to its predecessor, taking an almost GTA-like breezy, anarchic spin on franchise; introducing its new hero, Marcus Holloway, a hacker for group Dedsec in San Francisco. Jarring perhaps, though it could go some way to rectify criticisms of the original Watch Dog's dry tone and largely unlikeable hero Aiden Pearce.
The new game operates on freer "hack everything" game mechanics, allowing an even more dynamic open world environment; with players using their skills to explore their surroundings and use the networked infrastructure of the city, as well as every person and connected device available in the game world, to achieve their goals.
Ubisoft also announced a partnership with Sony for the game, with all post-launch DLC content going to PS4 gamers 30 days before other platforms.
Watch Dogs 2 get its release 15 November.
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