Ubisoft is pushing ahead with several new projects in the works, mainly focusing on the long-term success of future Assassin’s Creed titles. However, a new report claims that the Watch Dogs franchise, which was once a big deal at Ubisoft, is now ‘dead and buried’ at the company following the commercial failure of Watch Dogs: Legion and the cancellation of multiple projects including one battle royale game.
Speaking on Twitter/X, known Ubisoft leaker j0nathan claimed that the Watch Dogs series was ‘dead and buried’ at Ubisoft after 2020’s Watch Dogs: Legion failed commercially. This apparently led to the cancellation of multiple Watch Dogs-related projects at Ubisoft, one of which was supposedly a “fairly original” battle royale title.
This is surprising considering the success of the first two Watch Dogs games. While Ubisoft hasn’t disclosed the exact sales figures for Legion, a 2020 article from Gamingbolt reveals that it sold 1.9 million copies in three days, breaking franchise records. Updated sales figures today aren’t known, though some suggest that it has likely sold over 5 million copies – decent sales and certainly nothing to bury an entire franchise over.
On that note, the first two Watch Dogs games sold well over 10 million units each, according to 2019 sales records from Ubisoft. Comparatively, that means Legion didn’t sell as well as its predecessors. Perhaps Ubisoft simply had higher hopes for Legion being a big seller like the other games and considered it a commercial failure when it missed the mark.
Ubisoft officially ended support for Watch Dogs: Legion back in January 2022 after its online mode failed to make an impact. Apart from Game Pass additions, that was the last time we heard anything from Ubisoft regarding Watch Dogs and it seems fair to assume that the franchise might not make a return, at least not for a very long time.
Source: j0nathan (via Wccftech)
