What's going on with Watch Dogs? Insiders clash on claims about Ubisoft series

It's been a turbulent start to 2026 for Ubisoft which recently cancelled six video games, including the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, delayed seven more and closed two of its studios.

The company's share price has plummeted by more than a third as a result and there are reports online a number of people still employed at Ubisoft are actively looking elsewhere for work.

And now two gaming insiders have made completely opposite claims about what's going on with Watch Dogs.

Watch Dogs is a third-person open-world action adventure game series with a focus on hacking and there hasn't been a new entry in the series since Watch Dogs Legion released in 2020 to a bit of a lukewarm reception.

Renowned insider Tom Henderson claims the series is now "completely dead".

On the latest episode of Insider Gaming Weekly, Henderson said: "As far as I'm aware at this moment in time, the Watch Dogs IP is completely dead.

"I think there's a group of people who like the franchise and do fun fan art within Ubisoft but it's one of those IPs they're not keen on pulling the trigger on.

"It's because Legion failed to meet expectations."

But all might not be as it seems.

Henderson's comments were talked about on the ResetEra forum and responding to posts about the claims, insider Shinobi602 said: "Not exactly."

When asked if this was about the upcoming movie that has been filmed, he replied: "I am not talking about a movie."

This has led to speculation online the Watch Dogs games could soon be getting performance boosts, like what has happened recently with older games in the Far Cry series.

Mathieu Turi, director of the Watch Dogs movie, also quoted reports of Henderson's comments and said: "Is it? 😏"

And now Ubisoft seems to have cheekily addressed this too.

@Ubisoft_UK recently jumped on the viral 2016 / 2026 trend with a short 10 second video, with the majority of it featuring gameplay from Watch Dogs 2, which released 10 years ago.

The first Watch Dogs game released in 2014. It was supposed to release in late 2013 and part of Ubisoft's marketing for the game ahead of that said "two months are more than enough to visit Los Santos", directly referencing where GTA 5 is set after its release in September 2013.

It's clear Ubisoft hoped this would be a series to rival Grand Theft Auto - but it never quite fulfilled its potential.

Watch Dogs, set in a fictional version of Chicago, brought a lot of interesting ideas to the table and was beloved for having a grounded main character with a darker tone and serious story, whereas Watch Dogs 2, set in a fictional version of the San Francisco Bay Area, refined the gameplay with improved hacking and parkour.

And then came Watch Dogs Legion...

In the third game, players build a hacker resistance group called DeadSec where players can recruit and play as pretty much anyone in a futuristic, dystopian London setting.

But that lack of focus resulted in a bit of a shallow story and the game not really landing with a lot of people.

There hasn't been a game in the series since, although there is a live action film which wrapped filming in September 2024.

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