It turns out the Watch Dogs movie is in production, and in fact has already wrapped on filming.
Much like the Minecraft movie and the Borderlands movie, the Watch Dogs movie has been in the works for about a decade now, though unlike the Minecraft movie which finally received a trailer last week, and the Borderlands movie which was released last week (and was so abysmal that it got a digital release only three weeks after it came out in cinemas), we haven’t seen all that much of the Ubisoft adaptation. In fact, we haven’t really seen anything, though there were a couple of pieces of casting news earlier this year, as well as one bit this week. With that came a tweet from Ubisoft confirming that uh, filming has been completely finished on the film adaptation of Watch Dogs, though I somehow seem to have missed the fact production had started at all.
I guess that’s what happens when Ubisoft spends 10 years trying to make a movie – there’s only so long someone can pay attention when it comes to production timelines. Apparently Ubisoft did actually announce production was underway this summer, but again, there hasn’t been a game in four years (the AAA games industry is fine, thanks for asking), so general awareness of the series isn’t exactly at an all time high.
Ubisoft recently took a bit of a hit as its share price tumbled last week, leading one investor to write a letter to the company to say it wants the developer to go private to “get new air into” Ubisoft’s games – which would include more layoffs, apparently, which is definitely how good games are made (via Rock Paper Shotgun). The letter specifically calls out Watch Dogs as a title that has been “sleeping for years” despite being “loved by millions of players all around the world.” As far as anyone is aware, a new Watch Dogs game isn’t in development, an odd choice considering a movie is on the way.
No release date has been set for the film just yet, so much like the games, things are kind of in limbo for Watch Dogs. You’ll just have to replay them in the meantime.
