Watch Dogs broke sales records when it released in May, with more than 4 million copies of the game sold in the first week available. It's natural then that developer Ubisoft would be looking at making a sequel, and when it does come, players can expect some big changes for the open-world franchise.
In an interview with CVG, Ubisoft Montreal President of Creative Lionel Raynaud says that Watch Dogs is in many ways like Assassin's Creed, saying just like in the first Assassin's Creed, there are flaws in the game that will be addressed in the following sequels.
"We had a lot of flaws in the replayability of gameplay loops and you could feel that the game [Assassin's Creed] was a first iteration," Raynaud says. "At the time, there was clear potential but it was not easy to know it was going to become the franchise that it is today. It's the same thing with Watch Dogs: it was difficult to do everything at the right level, which is why we took more time."
Raynaud goes on to say that in order to fix some of the flaws in Watch Dogs when it comes time for the inevitable sequel, the developer will be bringing some radical changes to the game.
"There are flaws, obviously," Raynaud says. "We absolutely want to tackle these flaws and surprise players, and the way to tackle some of those flaws is going to be quite radical. There are parts of the game that will need to change. We have this ambition to have games that are worlds with systems that offer more agency and freedom for players, that allow them to discover the world in the way they want. We want them to be less narrative or character driven and more creative, with more choices for the player."
Accomplishing that goal of fixing flaws and allowing for more player creativity is "probably" the way Watch Dogs 2 will go, Raynaud says, but it will require Ubisoft to develop technologies that didn't exist in the first game. That doesn't mean the game will be entirely different, however. Raynaud says Ubisoft must be careful not to listen exclusively to the most outspoken and critical fans on social media, saying "So we need to be careful not to change the things that most players liked, just because the ones who didn't like those things are the most vocal."
When will Watch Dogs 2 be coming? Nobody knows right now, but Ubisoft did tweet out a mysterious teaser image hinting at Camden, New Jersey as being a possible future location for the franchise.
