As far as open world thrillers are concerned, Ubisoft’s upcoming hackathon Watch_Dogs is right up there with the likes of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Destiny. However, while the game has already emerged as one of the hottest prospects of the year, it seems like the developers are not resting on the already garnered laurels and have already begun planning ahead for the future.
In a recent interview with Games Industry International, Ubisoft senior vice president of sales and marketing Tony Key confirmed that the upcoming Watch Dogs title is on track to becoming a franchise, and more games in the series are on the way.
“Absolutely. That's what all our games are about; we won't even start if we don't think we can build a franchise out of it," Key stated. "There's no more fire and forget - it's too expensive. We feel like we're in a really good place with Watch_Dogs, but until we're the biggest game of the year we're not going to be satisfied.”
“Last year we cleaned up at E3 because we were pretty much the only next-gen game around. Watch_Dogs for us is really a franchise because we're tapping into something people really care about, never more than when the NSA PRISM scandal broke.”
Key also stated that company is on its way to expand its reaches by increasing its marketing spend this year. And by increasing its market, the company’s goal is to lower the overall risk. “We spend so much time, energy and money creating these experiences like Watch_Dogs and Assassin's Creed, you need to match that now on the marketing side. You're making a huge bet on the development side, you've got to be all in. It became very clear to us about two years ago that this is a blockbuster world we live in now."
“That means we have to be able to match the resources our production teams are putting in on the marketing side. You saw that with Assassin's Creed III; that was our largest marketing campaign ever as a company. What's interesting now is it doesn't feel so big any more. This year we're looking at Assassin's Creed IV, and Watch_Dogs, and saying 'That's what it takes nowadays, that's what we're going to keep doing',” he added.
Watch Dogs is currently scheduled for a Nov. 19 release on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC. PS4 and Xbox One releases for the game can be expected at a later date.