Feature
75 CommentsXbox One: What we know
By Polygon Staff on May 21, 2013 05.21.13
Xbox One Hardware Xbox one Hardware The Xbox One is built to switch instantly between games and entertainment applications As Microsoft Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Yusuf Mehdi revealed on stage, the Xbox One hardware is built around allowing players instant access to most of its features. So if you want to pause a game and check something online, or you want to receive Skype calls in the middle of playing a game, or you want to jump between live television and a game, you can do that without having to shut down one program and start something else. It's something old for those playing games on their phones and something new for those playing games on consoles, or those who like using voice commands to control all their entertainment options. Xbox One...
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5 CommentsAssassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Watch Dogs confirmed for Xbox One this year
By Samit Sarkar on May 21, 2013 05.21.13
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and Watch Dogs will be available on Xbox One "later this year," Ubisoft announced today. According to Ubisoft, those games are two of at least six that the publisher plans to release on Xbox One within the console's first year of existence. The six games will include new entries in existing franchises as well as new IP, along with downloadable titles. "The next generation of consoles will reinvigorate our industry and make it possible for us to deliver incredible new entertainment to gamers," said Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, in a press release today. "Our teams are using the innovations in connectivity, immersion and social gaming included in Xbox One to create original and memorable next-gen gaming experiences." Ubisoft will provide more details...
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16 CommentsWatch Dogs pre-orders at Amazon, GameStop get exclusive missions
By Samit Sarkar on May 20, 2013 05.20.13
Watch Dogs pre-order customers at Amazon and GameStop in the U.S. will receive their own exclusive single-player missions, publisher Ubisoft announced today. Amazon pre-orders come with the Signature Shot Pack. The mission will task players with infiltrating the hideout of the Black Viceroys, a gang in Watch Dogs' near-future Chicago, and steal a package including the Biometric Assault Rifle — so they can imprint the gun with their hand and claim it — and a Black Viceroys outfit for protagonist Aiden Pearce. Players who pre-order Watch Dogs at GameStop will get the Palace Pack. The mission within focuses on a police raid of a palace owned by an internet millionaire; it's up to Pearce to get in, wipe the guy's hard drives and get out before the cops show up. The Palace Pack also...
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40 CommentsUbisoft confident in Nintendo Wii U's future
By Jenna Pitcher on May 19, 2013 05.19.13
Ubisoft believes its upcoming titles will attract more gamers to the Wii U and is confident that Nintendo will take steps to ensure that the console is successful, a Ubisoft spokesperson told GamesIndustry International. "As with any new console, it takes some time to grow an established base," the spokesperson told GamesIndustry International. "Ubisoft has a varied and high-quality line-up for Wii U, with more big titles on the way including Rayman Legends, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag and Splinter Cell Blacklist. We're confident that this will help in continuing to attract gamers to the Wii U system and that Nintendo will take steps to ensure that the Wii U is successful in the market." Ubisoft executive director for EMEA territories Alain Corre called for a Wii U price...
Good Game
19 CommentsA video game about mass surveillance in the age of Big Brother and Little Brothers
By Brian Crecente on May 13, 2013 05.13.13
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, the only person watching you was the government. In today's society, the millions of digital eyes found in laptops, video game consoles, tablets and smartphones and a person's growing trail of data and information left online, are the realization of a more insidious invasion of privacy, a willful Little Brother. Where the overt surveillance of Big Brother was examined in a 1940s book, today's troubling Little Brother is scrutinized in an upcoming game from developer Ubisoft Montreal. Watch Dogs plays with the notion of information warfare and civil liberties by dropping a gamer into the shoes of a modern-day hacker vigilante. The game takes place in a re-imagining of a real Chicago already replete with surveillance cameras. The game's Windy...
Report
74 CommentsWatch Dogs' voyeurism, moral choices and clever AI
By Tracey Lien on May 10, 2013 05.10.13
The game, which is scheduled to launch in North America on Windows PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 on Nov. 19 and is due to launch on the PlayStation 4 in Q4, takes place in the "present day." But it's a present day that is a bit more futuristic, a bit more connected than today's reality. In the Chicago of Watch Dogs, a central operating system manages the entire city. "A computer controls a major city, but who controls the computers?" Guay asked. The answer is private companies. And personal data collection is the key commodity. Everyone in Watch Dogs casts a digital shadow, a collection of personal information that includes purchases, medical records, reading habits. The game's protagonist can hack smartphones, laptops and the computers that run the city, allowing players...
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5 CommentsUbisoft bringing Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Watch Dogs and Splinter Cell: Blacklist to PAX East
By Tracey Lien on Mar 08, 2013 03.08.13
Ubisoft announced today that it will give theater presentations at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Boston for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and Watch Dogs, and show off a new demo of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. The Ubisoft booth at PAX East will showcase some of the studio's digital, PC and iOS titles, and new content for its upcoming console releases will be shown in a fully-enclosed theater. The studio announced that during the exclusive look at Black Flag, attendees will be introduced to the game's hero and also receive a special edition Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag inflatable sword (while supplies last). PAX East will take place in Boston from March 22 to 24.
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5 CommentsWatch Dogs dev aiming for serious tone, action with 'real human drama'
By Samit Sarkar on Mar 07, 2013 03.07.13
Watch Dogs developer Ubisoft Montreal is designing the game to have a serious tone, and aims for its action sequences to have "real human drama" behind them, said creative director Jonathan Morin in an interview with Electric Theatre. The open-world title tells the story of Aiden Pearce, a man who goes to great lengths to protect his family — even to the detriment of others in the game's representation of near-future Chicago. He manipulates ctOS, the network that serves as the underlying connective tissue for the entire city's infrastructure, to his own ends. Realism is vital to Ubisoft Montreal in developing Watch Dogs, said Morin, but the key for the studio is that events in the game are backed up by scenarios that make you care about what's going on — the human side of the...
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7 CommentsUbisoft Reflections working on new projects, new managing director announced
By Emily Gera on Feb 28, 2013 02.28.13
Ubisoft Reflections, the studio currently collaborating with Ubisoft Montreal in the development of the upcoming Watch Dogs, announced a new managing director to the studio, Pauline Jacquey, and revealed it is working on a number of new projects. Prior to her move to the Newcastle-based studio, Jacquey worked in Ubisoft's Paris, Shanghai, Montreal and Pune game studios, having produced titles such as Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for consoles as well as the recent iterations of Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed for mobile devices. Reflections remains tight-lipped about its in-development projects, however. Previous work from the studio includes Driver: San Francisco, in addition to collaborations with other Ubisoft studios on games such as Just Dance 4 and Far Cry 3. Polygon...
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10 CommentsWatch Dogs running on brand new Disrupt engine, not Assassin's Creed engine
By Alexa Ray Corriea on Feb 26, 2013 02.26.13
Ubisoft's open-world title Watch Dogs is being rendered on a newly-developed engine, according to the company's technical director of graphics Sebastien Viard. Viard stated in a tweet that the engine was entirely new and developed specifically by Ubisoft's Montreal studio for Watch Dogs. This puts to rest rumors that the game is running on AnvilNext, the engine used to power the Assassin's Creed series since the first Assassin's Creed in 2007. "Watch Dogs uses a brand new engine called Disrupt, developed specifically for the game at Ubisoft Montreal," Viard tweeted. "It's not [the] Assassin's Creed engine." Watch Dogs was confirmed as a PlayStation 4 launch title at an event held by Sony in New York City last week, and was shortly after confirmed for release on Nintendo's Wii U. The...
