Hacking Watch Dogs - An Interview With Thomas Geffroyd

All it takes is the swipe of a finger. We connect with friends. We buy the latest gadgets and gear. We find out what's happening in the world. But with that same simple swipe, we cast an increasingly expansive shadow.
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On a recent trip to Paris with Ubisoft for Watch Dogs, I had the chance to talk to their resident hacking expert about how realistic the hacking is.

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© Ubisoft

All it takes is the swipe of a finger. We connect with friends. We buy the latest gadgets and gear. We find out what's happening in the world. But with that same simple swipe, we cast an increasingly expansive shadow. With each connection, we leave a digital trail that tracks our every move and milestone, our every like and dislike. And it's not just people. Today, all major cities are networked. Urban infrastructures are monitored and controlled by complex operating systems.

In Watch_Dogs, this system is called the Central Operating System (CTOS) - and it controls almost every piece of the city's technology and holds key information on all of the city's residents.

You play as Aiden Pearce, a brilliant hacker and former thug, whose criminal past led to a violent family tragedy. Now on the hunt for those who hurt your family, you'll be able to monitor and hack all who surround you by manipulating everything connected to the city's network. Access omnipresent security cameras, download personal information to locate a target, control traffic lights and public transportation to stop the enemy...and more.

Use the city of Chicago as your ultimate weapon and exact your own style of revenge.

Thomas Geffroyd has been working in the video game industry for 10 years focusing on brands and content. Through the years, he cautiously refused to specialize in favour of learning from as many crafts as possible within the industry. This lead him not only to work on major brands (Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry) but also to be part of various new IP developments within core teams. Always on the lookout to tell new stories with new tools, he decided to settle on the WATCH_DOGS brand for the long haul and apply his multidisciplinary approach to develop the universe through stories that need to be told.

So over to Thomas:

Watch Dogs will be released worldwide on 27th May, 2014 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.