Watch Dogs always seemed a bit like a near-future Assassin’s Creed, didn’t it? With the third person stealth gameplay and covered-up main character, alongside the hacking mechanics, it isn’t a huge leap from one style of game to the other, despite the change setting.
And the settings always moving around in time in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, anyway. The recent title was a seafaring adventure set in the early 18th century, but it also features modern elements as all of the games have.
Now, this might seem like a bit of a jump, but could Watch Dogs be joining the Assassin’s creed? The developers have already suggested that they’ll feature the same universe – though they don’t want to “ruin the surprise” of that. And now Ubisoft have abandoned the trademark, it makes a bit more sense for them to join up.
Given that Assassin’s Creed is a yearly franchise, they could be following in CoD’s footsteps with staggered franchises, such as Modern Warfare, Black Ops and the recent Ghosts. That would make sense, giving the teams time to make great products rather than repeating the mistakes they made with Assassin’s Creed III.
So, Assassin’s Creed V or Assassin’s Creed: Watch Dogs? How about that? Given that the addition to the name alone would make it easily the highest selling action adventure game of the year, it makes sense financially too.
Remember that they’re joining with Sony and planning to make a movie based on the game, and that would perhaps cause conflict with the Assassin’s Creed movie.
Or maybe it’s just because they’re sticking with that stupid underscore in Watch_Dogs instead. The game will release for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC later this year, though a Wii U release seems to have disappeared recently.
Update: It looks like they have gone for the annoying underscore version of the name.
@griffmeister69 @gooner4life_uk I can assure you that Watch_Dogs is still being polished as we speak. cc. @Ubisoft
— Ubisoft Montréal (@UbisoftMTL) February 3, 2014
Source: US Trademarks, via NeoGAF
SamBeThyName
I don’t think it’s such a bad idea if it means that AC stops bringing out a new game each year. The IP needs more time in between instalments, I often feel that it’s a game I just go through the motions with rather than looking forward to and really enjoying.
Lyts1985
Seems the request to abandon the trademark was fraudulent. Check out the documents attached to the case…
“Ubisoft Entertainment submits this Petition to the Director under Trademark Rule 2.146 to prevent the abandonment of Application Serial No. 85642398. A fraudulent Request for Express Abandonment was recently filed in connection with Application Serial No. 85642398.
Facts
On February 1, 2014, Ubisoft Entertainment received an email from [email protected] notifying Ubisoft Entertainment that a Request for Express Abandonment had been filed in connection with Application Serial No. 85642398. The Request for Express Abandonment purports to be signed by the Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft Entertainment, Yves Guillemot.
Mr. Guillemot, however, did not sign the Request for Express Abandonment, nor did Ubisoft Entertainment file the Request for Express Abandonment. The Request for Express Abandonment is fraudulent and was not filed by Ubisoft Entertainment or its representative.
As of this filing, the Office has not yet issued a Notice of Abandonment.”
Very interesting!
Foxhound_Solid
Regardless of its name, this game looks ill!
Forrest_01
Give it some nice hot soup – It’ll soon feel better.