Watch Dogs Series

***Watch Dogs*** (stylised as ***WATCH\_DOGS***) is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on 27 May 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, while a Wii U version was released in November 2014. Set within a fictionalized version of Chicago, the single-player story follows Aiden Pearce, a hacker, in his search for revenge after the killing of his niece. The open world design lets players freely roam the urban city, suburbs, open countryside, and run-down neighbourhoods of Chicago. The game is played from a third-person perspectiveand its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. An online multiplayer mode allows up to eight players to engage in both cooperativeand competitive gameplay.

Development on the game began in 2009 and continued for over five years. Duties were shared between many of Ubisoft's studios worldwide, with more than a thousand people involved. The developers visited Chicago to conduct field research on the setting and applied regional language for authenticity. Hacking features were created with consultation from cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, and the in-game control system was based on SCADA. The original score was composed by Brian Reitzell, who infused it with krautrock.

Following its announcement in June 2012, *Watch Dogs* was widely anticipated. At release, it received a polarized reception; praise was particularly directed at the game's hacking elements and mission variety, while criticism concerned the discrepancy in graphics quality between marketing and the real game, plot, and protagonist. *Watch Dogs* was a commercial success, breaking the record for the biggest first day sales of a Ubisoft game, and becoming the biggest launch of a new intellectual property ever in the United Kingdom at the time. The game has shipped over 10 million copies and was followed by a sequel, *Watch Dogs 2*, in November 2016.

***Watch Dogs 2*** (stylised as ***WATCH\_DOGS 2***) is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the sequel to 2014's *Watch Dogs* and was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows in November 2016.

Set within a fictionalized version of the San Francisco Bay Area, the game is played from a third-person perspective and its open world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. Players control Marcus Holloway, a hacker who works with the hacking group DedSec to take down the city's advanced surveillance system known as ctOS. There are multiple ways to complete missions, and each successful assignment increases the follower count of DedSec. Cooperative multiplayer allows for competitive one-on-one combat and connecting with other players in order to neutralize a player who is causing havoc.

Ubisoft Montreal, the game's developer, studied player feedback from the first game to assess what could be improved in *Watch Dogs 2* and the setting was researched by making frequent trips to California. Ubisoft Reflections was responsible for overhauling the driving mechanic. Real hackers were consulted to validate scripts and game mechanics for authenticity and references to real life hacktivism were fictionalized, like the Project Chanology protest. The original soundtrack for *Watch Dogs 2* was composed by Hudson Mohawke.

The game was released to generally favourable reception and praised for improving upon the original *Watch Dogs* in areas like the hacking, setting, characters and driving. However, character inconsistencies, firearms and frequent technical issues – later patched – were cited as imperfections.