An exclusive report from VG 24/7 revealed an unedited story about one of the most loved and discussed brands of the last decade: in its producers' plans, Watch Dogs should have been an episode of the Driver series, but during development its final form grew so much in ambition that it became something proposed to the CEO of Ubisoft as “Its own GTA”.
VG 24/7 spoke to three different sources - one currently at Ubisoft, a former senior employee of the company, and finally original Driver creator Martin Edmondson - about the origin of Watch Dogs. According to these people, prior to 2011, there were two versions in development for a new episode of Driver.
One, developed by Reflections, would become Driver: San Francisco, while the other was to be developed by the studio of Assassin’s Creed Ubisoft Montreal: era il futuro Watch Dogs.
Originally this last project would have been a sort of "Driver Dogs”In which it would also be included combat, parkour and a number of options for hacking electronic devices scattered throughout the game world.
Unfortunately Driver San Francisco, just previous episode, did not record big gains and this, combined with the more ambitious and different turn of the other project, would bring Ubisoft to create a totally new franchise. However, another Ubisoft source claims that this timeline is not entirely accurate, and instead claims that Ubisoft Montreal's Driver sequel had already morphed into Watch Dogs before San Francisco was released.
The original creator of Driver, for his part, he does not appear to have been involved in the story or setting of the Ubisoft Montreal version of Driver, although he told VG 24/7 that he did played early versions of the game and provided feedback on the game's driving controls and overall feel.
Truly an absurd story, no doubt about it. And now tell us, longtime gamers: how would you have seen a game of driver with hacking inside? Would you have liked it or thank you that Watch Dogs has gone its own way?
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