Coming fresh off the heels of a financial call that announced major studio closures and game cancellations at Ubisoft, industry leaker Tom Henderson has now claimed that the Grand Theft Auto competitor series Watch Dogs "is completely dead." Ubisoft has already confirmed the termination of development on at least six different games, including The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, and if what Henderson is alleging holds any truth, Watch Dogs fans may not want to hold their breath for any future installments.
General audiences and even shareholders have already voiced mixed reactions to the recent restructuring changes at Ubisoft, with the online communities sharing heated debates over the possible games that have been canceled and Ubisoft stock prices plunging to their lowest value in almost 15 years. Any time a company announces major projects getting axed, consumers and investors alike generally respond with uncertainty, as not all changes can prove beneficial. While it may be too early to draw any firm conclusions about the changes happening at Ubisoft, one key allegation about the Watch Dogs franchise has once again stirred up shocked reactions in the midst of the cutbacks and closures.
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What's Happening with Ubisoft's Watch Dogs Franchise?
During a podcast appearance with Insider Gaming, industry news leaker Tom Henderson claimed "the Watch Dogs IP is completely dead," following the poor reception and sales performance of Watch Dogs Legion in 2020 and subsequent shifting of priorities behind the scenes for the creatives leading the series. Henderson alleged that "there is a group of people who like the franchise" at Ubisoft, but it has supposedly "always been one of those IPs that [Ubisoft] is not keen on pulling the trigger on." After Legion failed to meet expectations, both among audiences and in the eyes of Ubisoft, this apparently killed any desire to keep Watch Dogs as a leading IP moving forward. While there is still a Watch Dogs movie set to release sometime in the future, it would seem any hope of more Watch Dogs video games has been fully laid to rest, at least for the time being.
It is worth noting that the lack of current development or even plans to eventually develop a new Watch Dogs game is not necessarily indicative of a dead franchise. Even though Ubisoft canceled The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, employees have reassured fans that the series still has hope for the future. Whether the same could one day prove true for Watch Dogs obviously remains to be seen, but it could be an optimistic indication that game development being placed on hold is not a complete death sentence at Ubisoft. If the Watch Dogs film does well among cinema-goers, it might make it worthwhile for Ubisoft to revive the series, so fans may want to keep a close eye on how that movie does at the box office whenever it does finally release.
Another thing to remember is that cinematic success could be a double-edged sword for Watch Dogs, wherein Ubisoft may choose to keep prioritizing movies or even a television series rather than working on more Watch Dogs games. Of course, this is all pure speculation, but if the Watch Dogs film adaptation can find the same success as the Amazon Prime Fallout show, it could be just the push needed for Ubisoft to bring back Watch Dogs as a game franchise. The popularity of the Fallout series revitalized interest in Fallout 76, prompting updates to that game, so if a Watch Dogs movie can follow the same pattern, the Watch Dogs IP may not be dead after all. Only time will tell if these possibilities come to fruition, so fans may want to stay tuned for any official word on the status of Watch Dogs and other changes at Ubisoft.
Watch Dogs Legion
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