Watch Dogs engine was intended for Driver

[daimashin]

Ubisoft has revealed that the engine for Watch Dogs was originally intended for a different game focused on driving, potentially in the Driver franchise. Speaking to IGN, Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc explained that the team working on the project realized an open-world game was a better fit than their original vision.

“Watch Dogs wasn’t started as Watch Dogs,” Detoc told IGN. “They were working on a driving engine, working on something. We had the Driver license. This was years ago. Then we were thinking, ‘no, this is not the way we want to go with a driving game,’ so we cancelled that and restarted. It’s not like Watch Dogs started as Watch Dogs. The Watch Dogs project was initially another game. At some point it changed. That’s at least three years ago, and then the Watch Dogs project reused some of the work that had been done on this driving engine.”

“It’s not that Driver became Watch Dogs, so much as the driving game we made was a driving game,” Detoc elaborated. “The decision was made that there was another driving game being made and this one should be an open-world game where the guy comes out of the car and does other things. Then the team decides to reshuffle itself entirely. A few other people come in, a new creative director, and then they start a new game. I wouldn’t say that Driver became Watch Dogs, because that’s not true. That’s not really what happens. What happens is that a game gets cancelled, and then you take pieces of that game to make a new one. We could have had another driving engine from another team in another place, and then it would have been used by the Watch Dogs team.”

Quoted from IGN

Interesting, I loved the Driver franchise until the one with Vin Diesel in it. I'd love to see a new Driver game in the future. Maybe a reboot for the franchise.

 

[SpaceTiger]

I could never get into Driver. I liked that the game actually acknowledge traffic laws which was a breath of fresh air from the GTA series, but the game just never clicked with me. The way Detoc is explaining it is kind of like "At first we were working on Conkers and decided we'd take this and that and do Banjo Kazooie," only in this case, they salvaged pieces of whatever the driving game was supposed to be.

 

[sidd230]

Hopefully this means good driving mechanics, but if the Driver game was completely scrapped it might not really mean anything at all.

 

[daimashin]

I actually wished that they had kept Driver while making Watch Dogs. Although they may share the same engine but doesn't necessarily have to be same gameplaywise. Such a waste to see a once great franchise go down the drain.

 

[aperture7]

Man, I remember Driver! A game with so much potential and yet for whatever reason it never quite made it. But back in the day, I think it was the first or second one, one I played on PC where you do all these jumps all over San Fran.

I do hope they come out with another one. I haven't given up on the potential of that game.

 

[sidd230]

Man, I remember Driver! A game with so much potential and yet for whatever reason it never quite made it. But back in the day, I think it was the first or second one, one I played on PC where you do all these jumps all over San Fran.

I do hope they come out with another one. I haven't given up on the potential of that game.

Probably not happening since the scraped the entire project. Still not giving up though.

 

[CpmPanda]

The original driver was badass, I remember that very difficult driving course in the garage. oh my god I tried to perfect that 100 times before I got it right.

 

[hellsing006]

I don't quite remember the Driver's franchise, I'm not sure why I just don't remember it being around but I did look it up and it looked pretty good. If the mechanics are as good as people are saying than I'm pretty interested in getting into it and checking it out for myself before Watchdogs comes out. I'm wondering how much of Driver is in Watchdogs.