Skip to main content

Watch Dogs: Legion’s online mode delayed to next year as Ubisoft focuses on bugs

Ubisoft is delaying Watch Dogs: Legion‘s upcoming multiplayer mode until 2021. The studio says it will focus on fixing the game’s technical issues, starting with a major patch next week.

The online update was set to launch on December 3, and would have added co-op missions and competitive modes to the game. It would have been Watch Dogs: Legion‘s first major content drop since the game’s release in October. Ubisoft says the mode will now launch in early 2021 but no specific date was given. The news comes just after the game’s price has dropped to $30 at some retailers ahead of Black Friday.

Ubisoft explained the decision in a blog post, citing players’ frustrating with the game’s current bugs. “Since the launch of Watch Dogs: Legion, some of you continue to have technical issues preventing you from enjoying the game. The dev team is committed to fixing these issues and will not stop until everyone can experience the game as intended,” says Ubisoft.

Next week, Ubisoft will launch a 2.20 patch that address the game’s stability and adds a manual save button on PC. The studio plans on further optimizing the game over the next month to achieve consistent a 60 frames per second on high-end graphics cards.

The situation is similar story to what happened with Marvel’s Avengers earlier this year. Square Enix delayed the game’s first major content drop to address bugs and instability issues that marred its launch.

In our review of Watch Dogs: Legion, we noted the game’s performance issues on PC, which caused the game to “inevitably crash” when trying to play with ray tracing enabled at 60 frames per second.

Editors' Recommendations

Giovanni Colantonio
Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…
God of War, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs join PlayStation Hits roster
The World Serpent in god of war

The PlayStation Hits roster continues to grow since the collection was launched in June, with God of War, Far Cry 4, and Watch Dogs among the newest additions.

The PlayStation Hits collection, which includes some of the best games ever released on the PlayStation 4, is locked in at a price of $20. The physical copies of the titles are marked with the familiar red label that Sony has used in previous iterations of the promotion.

Read more
Everything we know about Watch Dogs Legion
Everything we know about Watch Dogs Legion, from story to release date
watch dogs legion

After the first Watch Dogs launched in 2014 and its much-improved sequel released two years later, Ubisoft’s hacking-filled open world series went dark. We anticipated that a third game would change the setting, perhaps introduce a new main character to replace Marcus or Aiden, and could better tie the overarching universe’s events to the games’ stories thus far. Instead, Ubisoft Toronto and new creative director Clint Hocking opted to redefine what is possible in an open-world game, allowing you to play as every single non-player character in the game. Whether the studio is able to pull off something this ambitious remains to be seen, but it has us very excited right now. Here is everything we know about Watch Dogs Legion.
Location and story
WATCH DOGS LEGION - E3 2019 GAMEPLAY WALKTHROUGH

Watch Dogs Legion is set in the not-too-distant future, where much like in the real world, technology continues to play a morally nebulous role in the average citizens’ lives. Following the “Brexit” vote that saw the United Kingdom opt to withdraw from the European Union, the nation has further tightened its security, employing a private company called Albion to police its citizens and – ostensibly – keep the peace. The motives of Albion are currently unclear, but their presence has resulted in a notable shift in British policing. Unlike traditional police officers, Albion contractors are armed with assault rifles, and will aim them at civilians and even shoot to kill.

Read more
Watch Dogs Legion allows players to control any citizen they see in London
Watch Dogs 3 Legion E3 2019 Ubisoft reveal release date

Ubisoft’s annual E3 2019 conference kicked off with the official reveal of a new Watch Dogs game. Watch Dogs Legion is the third title in the series and its main hook is that players don’t just control a single lead character, they recruit a roster of characters with different abilities and skills.

In the gameplay debut, we witnessed a character in Watch Dogs Legion named Ian as he explores London and investigates the other characters around him. He’s attempting to find someone familiar with drones and, when he finds him, the drone expert, Jimmy Shaw, starts a fight with security. Ian helps him out while Jimmy takes off. During the confrontation, Ian is injured and the player has an option to surrender or resist. Resist is chosen and Ian cloaks himself before escaping in a nearby taxi.

Read more