A remastering of the 2017 classic
If all my friends jumped off a bridge, I might too. Especially if it were the London Bridge.
Everyone’s reporting that Watch Dogs 3 is set in London. It’s a smaller story that’s attached to the revelation that The Division 2 may have informally announced that the next Assassin’s Creed is Viking-themed. The problem is that the Watch Dogs thing already was a story.
In February 2017, Ubisoft patched the ending of Watch Dogs 2 to include coordinates that pointed to Brixton, London. Every games site jumped on it 26 months ago, proclaiming that Watch Dogs 3 would take place in London — us included. It was a powerful little teaser, and Ubisoft has reliably used this sort of in-game hinting to drive intrigue for sequels and upcoming titles. It was almost certainly legitimate.
What’s weird about the 2019 flurry of news articles is that everyone acknowledges the 2017 story. It’s not like everyone forgot about the old thing and just carelessly rewrote it (which happens more than you’d think). It’s old information that’s being presented as old information.
There’s one small, tiny, minuscule addition to this year’s version of the story. In Kotaku’s Assassin’s Creed report, there’s a paragraph about Ubisoft’s past meta-teases. One sentence reads “A new patch for Watch Dogs 2 also dropped a major clue for Watch Dogs 3, telling the world that it would be set in London (which it is).” That parenthetical is the basis for the “Watch Dogs 3 will be set in London: 2019 Remix” headlines. It’s kind of flimsy! On one hand, Kotaku has a stellar track record of leaking details about major games, especially from Ubisoft. On the other hand, Kotaku usually does exhaustive reporting — not just a simple confirmation using the words “which it is.”
What are we doing here? I’m not really sure. Games writing can feel cyclical, and maybe this is happening because it’s about time we talked about Watch Dogs again. Ubisoft is releasing four triple-A games before April 2020, and it’s a good bet that Watch Dogs 3 will be one of them. So here’s your reminder that the next Watch Dogs will probably be set in London, just in case you forgot. Two years is a long time to remember stuff.
