Watch Dogs 2 To Launch By March 2017

Watch Dogs 2 will be released from April 1st, 2016 to March 31st, 2017, publisher Ubisoft announced today.

While that’s a fairly broad window, it will likely replace the gap usually held by Assassin’s Creed as rumours suggested last month. As Ubisoft has now confirmed that there will be no Assassin’s Creed game in 2016, it makes an autumn/winter launch quite probable.

Ubisoft revealed the news about Watch Dogs in its latest financial report, in which it listed major games it plans to release during fiscal year 2017 (the aforementioned dates). The lineup is as follows: “For Honor, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: WildLands, the next installment of Watch Dogs, and a new high-potential AAA brand with strong digital live services.”The company says it is stepping back to reevaluate the Assassin’s Creed franchise. While the latest entry, Syndicate, was broadly praised by fans and critics, its predecessor Unity suffered from wide-ranging issues

The company says it is stepping back to reevaluate the Assassin’s Creed franchise. While the latest entry, Syndicate, was broadly praised by fans and critics, its predecessor Unity suffered from wide-ranging issues. The break will allow Ubisoft to “evolve its mechanics” while Watch Dogs 2 will surely fill the publisher’s open-world games void this holiday.

In January 2015, creative director Jonathon Morin said the game would take more risks than the original and the game appeared in a developer’s LinkedIn profile in April.

As for Assassin’s Creed, last month’s reports suggest that the next game is codenamed Empire and will be released in late 2017. In it, you will play as an ex-slave in ancient Egypt and Ubisoft hopes the game will mark the start of a Roman trilogy. The Assassin’s Creed movie arrives in cinemas in December.