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  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • It starts with reality.

  • With Watch Dogs, it always starts with reality.

  • It doesn't mean we cannot be imaginative or all that,

  • but in reality, hacking and people who break systems are

  • pretty creative naturally.

  • So we want to inspire ourselves from them.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • This is a big moment for us in production.

  • Basically all the parts of the game

  • are colliding together for the first time.

  • And for the past months, we've been

  • able to play the game from beginning to end.

  • So now, we see how things are coming together,

  • and you could almost say the game has a life of its own

  • at this point.

  • When you finish a game after almost five years,

  • you need to sleep on it a little bit.

  • Then afterwards, what's exciting is

  • when you start really understanding what you tried

  • to do with the first game.

  • What went well, what went less good,

  • and also what the players have said.

  • So Watch Dogs was, first of all, a new IP,

  • which is a big deal.

  • It means that you start from almost nothing.

  • I think the new idea in Watch Dogs

  • one was to talk about an hyper-connected society,

  • something that was becoming very important

  • in our day-to-day lives.

  • Chicago was one of the most surveilled cities in North

  • America, so we talked a lot about cameras and surveillance

  • and being watched.

  • When you played "Watch Dogs," you probably played

  • something you'd never played before,

  • because the city was sort of alive.

  • People were not just people walking around the street,

  • but you could hack into their lives

  • and you could exploit them, you could see their secrets.

  • You could manipulate the city, the bridges and the steam

  • pipes and the traffic lights.

  • [TIRES SQUEALING]

  • What we basically created with Watch Dogs one

  • was a playground where everything was connected.

  • So, finally shipping the game.

  • Well, a lot of people were happy and excited.

  • We also got a lot of feedback, and we

  • listened to that feedback.

  • I personally spent months reading forums and reading

  • all the player feedbacks I could see on the web.

  • We wanted to know what people felt

  • and what they wanted to get from the game,

  • and what we could improve in the future.

  • At that point, we knew we were going to make a Watch Dogs 2.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • We felt like we really did a big milestone

  • with the original Watch Dogs, but with Watch Dogs 2

  • we could really deliver on the fantasy of being a hacker.

  • This time around, we're in San Francisco.

  • For us, San Francisco striked a chord

  • because it meant the very birth of the attitude of a hacker.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • -- San Francisco caused 350--

  • -- smart houses are calibrated to anticipate

  • your every need.

  • You're listening to "Rock the Grid."

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • For the setting of Watch Dogs 2,

  • we wanted to have a different vibe.

  • So our San Francisco keeps all the important parts

  • of the Bay Area.

  • And there's a different feel, different vibe,

  • a different look to all the areas of our world.

  • We wanted to kind of represent all these different areas

  • and the different collections of people

  • that live in these areas, and what

  • their lifestyles and their personalities are like.

  • So we're building a game where basically it's

  • almost a simulation.

  • You're in that world, and if you stop moving

  • and you look around, you feel the world is alive, right.

  • This is the promise of what an open world game is.

  • We broke the feeling that the world

  • is centered on you, the player.

  • So characters shouldn't only react to you,

  • they should react to each other.

  • You know, maybe people start fights.

  • Maybe someone calls the cops on someone else than you.

  • Maybe a dog barks after someone else,

  • and chases them down the street.

  • You need to feel as if this city is alive

  • even if you do nothing.

  • And then if you start doing things,

  • if you start playing in the world,

  • the city should react to what you're doing.

  • It should feel normal.

  • It should surprise you, also, how it reacts.

  • We were really interested in the city itself.

  • It almost feels like the Wild West of technology,

  • and how can you set something in the Wild West of technology.

  • It's a world that has a lot of potential for gameplay.

  • I mean, if you're a hacker and you go in Silicon Valley

  • and you have the head office of some of the biggest tech

  • companies in the world, what will you do?

  • Can you hack into those places?

  • What will you find?

  • So it's a very intriguing setting

  • for a hacker who's exploring the world.

  • So as we're crafting this world, we're

  • putting in it all of the factions that should be in it.

  • So for example, we have various criminal groups

  • trying to fight over the underground of the city.

  • We also have corporations trying to make money, and potentially

  • even manipulate people in society.

  • And we also have other groups of hackers

  • trying to tap into the technology that

  • has been set up in the city.

  • Once again, ctOS, the smart city system

  • that was in the first Watch Dogs,

  • is installed in San Francisco.

  • And various people are trying to tap

  • into it to exercise control or power, or to try to make money.

  • In creating a hero for Watch Dogs 2,

  • we wanted somebody new, somebody that

  • could embody the spirit of California

  • and the spirit of San Francisco.

  • But we needed somebody who was going

  • to be really worthy of all the cool stuff

  • that we wanted to do in the game.

  • So our hero in Watch Dogs 2 is Marcus Holloway.

  • He's a young actor, very brilliant in what

  • he does because of the injustices that he's seen,

  • both being from Oakland and also having been profiled

  • the wrong way and being accused of a crime he actually

  • didn't commit.

  • That sort of made him go against the system.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • In terms of visual, we always tried

  • to create iconic attributes to the character

  • so that he can be memorable and people wants to play him,

  • but still feels credible inside our world.

  • He's a perfect blend between somebody

  • that's tech savvy, that represent

  • a little bit the internet culture,

  • but also has that athletic and rebellious feeling to him.

  • So we had to decide from the beginning

  • what things were comparable between Aiden and Marcus,

  • and what things would be different.

  • We focused on parkour.

  • We wanted Marcus to be a lot better at parkour than Aiden.

  • And we're not talking about just like climbing on things,

  • but being able to flow and chain moves together.

  • So he's a pretty good fighter, but he's got

  • some interesting quirks, too.

  • He's a more expressive guy.

  • [GRUNTING]

  • We've really tried hard to figure out

  • what kind of melee weapon Marcus would have.

  • And we tried a whole bunch of things.

  • And some things were pretty cool,

  • and some things just didn't work at all.

  • We did a lot of research, and we basically

  • did what Marcus would have done.

  • We went onto the internet and we started watching videos

  • and we started reading websites, and tried

  • to figure out what kind of stuff we could make.

  • Pretty much all the stuff that you probably

  • shouldn't search at work.

  • In the end, what we stumbled across

  • was this idea of taking a billiard ball

  • and attaching it to a paracord lanyard.

  • And we took this, and we handed this to the stunt team.

  • And the first thing that we saw was it was fast.

  • It was so fast that we couldn't believe

  • how fast they were spinning this around their body.

  • And then as soon as I saw this video, I'm like, this is crazy.

  • We got it.

  • [GRUNTING]

  • Citizens of the world, may we have your attention.

  • When we say we want to make a game about hacking, really

  • a hacker, it's a culture.

  • But you can have various motivations.

  • The motivation we're excited about

  • was what we call hacktivism, people

  • who want to impact society and have ideals to defend.

  • So just in the background and in the fantasy of it,

  • you're not a hacker in Watch Dogs 2,

  • you're a DedSec hacker.

  • You're a member of a community.

  • And you're doing grand stuff, and big exposure

  • of important informations to society

  • because you're not alone and you're

  • working with other people.

  • The first thing you have to do when you're

  • talking about hackers is you kind of

  • have to respect where they came from originally.

  • Their messages sound very serious,

  • but there's also a lulzy element to it,

  • the way they have fun with what they're saying.

  • We took that and we said OK, so what

  • if this is sort of the spirit of DedSec and of our heroes?

  • What if their spirit is still rooted in the trolling,

  • it's a joke, we're going to have fun with it,

  • but they still have something important to say?

  • The DedSec visual was really important for me,

  • because it represent everything that's cool about Watch Dogs.

  • It's stylized, it's edgy, and it's raw

  • and it's underground, tapping into the origin,

  • tapping into the internet culture, with all the memes

  • and also all the visual language of the internet.

  • So there are various characters, various people

  • inside of DedSec.

  • Some are a bit more violent, some have more ideals,

  • some are maybe more intellectual,

  • but they all have in common that they want to fight

  • to preserve a sense of freedom.

  • They don't want people to abuse tech

  • to take control over people.

  • But you know, I'm not saying they are knights, you know.

  • They are rebellious.

  • They do their own things their own way.

  • And they want to have fun.

  • That's also one thing, is a sense of freedom

  • and also a sense of fun through that group.

  • We are DedSec.

  • Join us.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • The new idea for hacking in Watch Dogs 2

  • is to let the player create his own solutions.

  • We're adding a lot more depth to hacking.

  • So you have a lot more control, a lot more flexibility

  • in how you hack the world.

  • So one big category of hacking in Watch Dogs 2

  • is the entire branch of pushing remote controls to its limit.

  • One of the big things on Watch Dogs is hacking vehicles.

  • [TIRES SQUEALING]

  • I think this is a real game-changer, because vehicles

  • are everywhere in the world.

  • And if you can hack into the drive system of a car,

  • you can pretty much drive it wherever you want.

  • [SHOUTING]

  • So making sure, if you see a forklift in the world,

  • it shouldn't be a forklift and just like move the box up,

  • down.

  • You should, just like a camera, press a button,

  • become that thing.

  • One of the core things that we're doing

  • is we're opening up the game with Watch Dogs 2.

  • You can hack every character.

  • You can hack every car in the game.

  • And you can hack most of the electronics within the city.

  • So that's a lot of potential targets for hacking,

  • and that's not even counting your own tools.

  • Well in Watch Dogs 2, we brought in a lot more toys

  • and things to play with, because we wanted

  • to embrace the maker culture.

  • DedSec have these really interesting, intricate guns.

  • They're built on a 3D printer, basically

  • the cutting-edge technology of 3D printing, which is actually

  • building it with metal.

  • It's also got this really cool taser.

  • So if you want to play the game completely non-lethal

  • and not actually kill anybody, you can totally do that.

  • We're playing with a lot more crafted items and a lot more

  • of little devices that you can use.

  • One of the things that people kind of like

  • that we've done -- they really like what we've done --

  • is we've created toys for Marcus.

  • He has an RC jumper.

  • It's got little wheels, and it's even

  • got this little robotic arm that he can sort of deploy.

  • And he can interact with things, he

  • can unplug things and replug them, and take out screws.

  • It's a neat little toy.

  • And then the other gadget he's got is this quadcopter.

  • And it's more about scouting and being the eye in the sky.

  • First-person view on it is incredible, because you just

  • zipping through the city.

  • It feels like you're flying.

  • Well, you are flying.

  • Another branch which is kind of connected to it

  • is the concept of manipulating people.

  • In Watch Dogs one, you could only

  • hack the people that were marked as potential target.

  • Now, you can target the person you want,

  • and you can hack them in multiple ways.

  • For example, I could hack one person and distract them,

  • have their phone ringing so they look at their phone

  • to create a distraction.

  • Later on in the game, you'll also

  • be able to do things we call mass hacking, which is, well,

  • why only hack one if you can hack them all.

  • [VIBRATING]

  • There's one thing that I really believe

  • about Watch Dogs players is that there is no Watch Dogs

  • player.

  • There are many types of Watch Dogs players.

  • You should be deciding how you want to play the game.

  • So that means you can play a mission full gun blazing

  • if that's the way you like to play.

  • Full stealth.

  • Or, through hacking only, project yourself on computers,

  • take control of electronics, influence people,

  • and try to get to your goal that way.

  • We try to really support all players types

  • across all different styles of play,

  • and also allow players to combine and mash these styles

  • and play together, too.

  • If you've been playing a certain way for a while,

  • we want the game to kind of challenge

  • you to try different things, but also

  • not force you into playing the game a certain way.

  • We worked to improve the driving,

  • make it more accessible, while keeping

  • all the different styles of vehicles

  • and adding a lot of physics and feel to all the vehicles.

  • So we keep the depth, but have more accessibility.

  • The team was super happy with the result we've had,

  • and I hope gamers will be just as excited.

  • [OVERLAPPING NOISES]

  • We are very excited by the potential of what

  • we call seamless online.

  • We start doing that in Watch Dogs

  • one, so we're expanding on that.

  • We cross path with friends in the city.

  • So you're playing in single-player

  • and you're crossing path with another player who's

  • also playing in single-player, both of you

  • are members of DedSec, so you're friends.

  • And you can just walk up to each other,

  • say hello, hit the button, and form a co-op team.

  • And what we're going to be showing

  • in the next couple of months is example

  • of how those things work together

  • to create magical gameplay moments.

  • [TIRES SQUEALING]

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • The city of San Francisco and the whole Bay Area is exciting.

  • It's vast.

  • You're going to find a ton of things

  • to do that are unique to you.

  • Basically build your own moments.

  • You know, create a situation that you start laughing at

  • and you say, wow, this happened, and you

  • want to share it with friends.

  • You don't want it just to be like a roller coaster or theme

  • park ride, where I go through all the same beats as everybody

  • else.

  • You decide what you want to be spending your time doing.

  • That can be multiplayer.

  • That can be focusing on stories.

  • That can be just exploring the world.

  • Whichever activity you do, we're going

  • to make sure you get rewarded to get you closer to the end game.

  • That's kind of the promise we're making to gamers.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • You always know when something starts to click,

  • it starts to work.

  • Everything change.

  • You stop seeing individual components, animations

  • or texture maps or vehicles.

  • You just start to see the experience as a whole.

  • It changes on the floor.

  • People get excited about it.

  • This is it.

  • It exists.

  • We are always making the game with the player in mind.

  • They have always been the driving force.

  • When you come with a sequel that really earns its

  • two, you know, that really

  • does a lot of new things, that has a lot of surprises,

  • it's a great feeling.

  • In the end, there's nothing more accurate than this,

  • looking at something, trying to understand it solely

  • for [BLEEP] up with the system.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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