14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft has confirmed that its upcoming Watch Dogs open world action adventure game has gone gold, meaning it's ready for release later this month and that it will deliver a high degree of freedom to players.
Watch Dogs was initially set to appear from the Ubisoft Montreal team last year, in November, right alongside the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Unfortunately, the large publisher delayed the launch so that the team could continue polishing it and make sure that all the systems worked together in a great way.
Now, Ubisoft has confirmed that the game has gone gold, meaning work on it is complete and it's ready to be printed onto discs and shipped to stores ahead of the May 27 worldwide release date.
"It’s exciting to be gold," Creative Director Jonathan Morin told UbiBlog. "But it’ll be more exciting when people are playing. For the fans it means that it’s true. It means there will be no such thing as another delay. But for us, it’s not done until they actually have it in their hands."
What's more, the studio has also emphasized the huge amount of freedom offered to players, who aren't forced to use a certain play style, certain weapons, or do missions in ways that they don't find enjoyable.
"We tried to make a game that’s very scalable in the sense that it supports your play style," Lead Gameplay Designer Danny Belanger added. "It supports what you want to do most of the time. And it also supports your motivation."
"Do you want to play a story? Do you want to drive? Do you want to shoot? Do you want to hack? Do you want to play with others? Do you want to play on a tablet? It allows players to do what they feel like, which I find really cool. There’s lots of things to explore, there’s lots of things to try. I think the greatest thing about Watch Dogs is doing what you think is fun."
Watch Dogs is set to deliver a complex open world action adventure experience starring Aiden Pearce, a vigilante who seeks vengeance upon those that harmed his family. The world of Chicago can be manipulated through Aiden's smartphone and it's going to be interesting to see how the novel mechanic works in the game.
Watch Dogs is set to debut on May 27 for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. A Wii U edition is scheduled for launch in the fall.