E3 2014: Ubisoft Says Watch Dogs Is a Franchise -- "Now We Figure Out What To Do Next"

Expect to see more Watch Dogs. Tony Key, Ubisoft senior vice president of sales and marketing, told GameSpot today at E3 that Watch Dogs is now officially a "franchise." Though he wouldn't confirm if Watch Dogs 2 is now in development, he said the commercial success of the first game (it sold 4 million copies in one week) shows that the brand has staying power.

"Creating a new franchise like that is the hardest thing to do in our industry because there's so much risk involved," Key said. "We're incredibly happy with the sales of the game and the experiences that the people are having. So it's a franchise. It goes into the franchise barn and now we figure out what to do next. It's something that we can build on now."

Part of the way in which Ubisoft plans to build on the Watch Dogs brand is to make a movie based on the game. "We have a movie deal already for Watch Dogs. So yeah, I'd call it a franchise." The Watch Dogs movie was announced a year ago this week. Ubisoft's own Ubisoft Motion Pictures is working on the movie, but there's no word yet on a director for the film or details about a cast. Fans have called for Tom Cruise to play the lead role of Aiden Pearce in the movie.

If there is indeed a video game sequel to Watch Dogs, you can bet that it will offer something new, Key said. "Any team that's going to make a sequel is going to have to come up with something innovative and entertaining," Key said. "Otherwise, the brand doesn't grow. That'll be the challenge for the guys, if and when they start talking about making another game."

The first Watch Dogs took 5.5 years to develop. For more, check out GameSpot's review.

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