Ubisoft Unveils Watch Dogs, a Groundbreaking New IP

The announcement of Watch Dogs was the biggest surprise of E3 thus far. Unless Sony or Nintendo have anything big to announce, Ubisoft may well have stolen the show.

The trailer that lead up to Watch Dogs first revolved around something called CTOS, or the city Central Operating System, a city-wide system that contains the personal information and biometric data of just about every person living in a city, with everything from hospital records and bank details to their private e-mail accounts. It is none too different from the kind of technology we're going to have in a few years time.

In Watch Dogs, you take on the role of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante—or Watch Dog—who uses both his fists and his wits to outsmart people who escape from the law. A wanted man himself, Aiden uses his hacking abilities to get by, and he appears to be aided by other Watch Dogs much like himself. He turns the CTOS into a weapon for his purposes.

“Watch Dogs goes beyond the limits of today’s open-world games by giving players the ability to control an entire city,” said Jonathan Morin, creative director, Ubisoft. “In Watch Dogs, anything connected to the city’s Central Operating System becomes a weapon. By pushing the boundaries, we can provide players with action and access to information on a scale that’s never been seen in a video game before.”

The video which premiered at E3 shows us a scenario where Aiden enters an art gallery in an attempt to lure one of his targets (the artist) out of hiding. He then uses a hacking device to cause a traffic accident by shutting off the nearby traffic lights and engages in a shootout with his target and his target's bodyguards.

After dispatching the target, he's pursued by the police, and the perspective switches to that of another character, whom along with the other Watch Dogs must find a way to help Aidan escape from the police.

Watch Dogs is expected to be one of the first ever titles for next-generation consoles like the Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4. It does not have a release date at this time.