Ubisoft has reportedly shelved the Watch Dogs franchise, with insider Tom Henderson claiming the IP is no longer active inside the company.
The report comes from Henderson during an episode of the Insider Gaming podcast titled The End For Ubisoft and Xbox Developer Direct Reactions! It’s Our One Year Anniversary!, where he discussed the fallout from Watch Dogs Legion and what followed internally at Ubisoft.
According to Henderson, developers who worked on Watch Dogs Legion felt the game needed significantly more development time before launch. He said that shortly after Legion released, the team moved onto another project that had been in development for several years, which was later canceled.
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Speaking on the podcast, Henderson explained that the canceled project was not a Watch Dogs game, and that the franchise itself has since been abandoned.
Watch Dogs IP is reportedly dead
“As far as I’m aware at this moment in time, the Watch Dogs IP is completely dead,” Henderson said.
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He added that while there are still Ubisoft employees who like the franchise and create fan art internally, the publisher has historically been hesitant to fully commit to the series despite its premise.
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Watch Dogs Legion launched in 2020 and marked a major shift for the series, introducing a play-as-anyone mechanic set in a near-future London. While the game received mixed reviews, it failed to gain the long-term traction Ubisoft had hoped for.
Henderson’s comments come as Ubisoft continues to restructure its development pipeline and reassess several of its major franchises. The publisher has not publicly commented on the status of Watch Dogs, and there has been no official announcement confirming the series has been canceled.
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