Infamous Second Son (stylized as inFAMOUS Second Son) is an open world, action-adventure video game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The game was released worldwide on March 21, 2014. Like in previous Infamous games, the player-controlled protagonist possesses superpower abilities that players use in combat. The story follows protagonist Delsin Rowe fighting the Department of United Protection (D.U.P.) in a fictionalized Seattle. Over the course of the game, Delsin acquires new powers and becomes either good or evil as player choices influence his morality.
Sucker Punch began planning the game as early as 2010, when they began discussion with Sony to bring the Infamous series onto a new generation of hardware. They provided feedback to Sony on what hardware evolutions they would like to see on the PlayStation 4. Second Son was considered a fresh start for the series because it features a new protagonist. Delsin's superpowers were designed to feel fluid and suited to the open world design. Critical reviews were generally positive, with the gameplay, combat and visuals widely praised. However, the game was criticized on the morality system, which some reviewers found dated and binary, the protagonist and the game's repetitive side missions. The game sold over a million copies within nine days, making it the fastest-selling Infamous entry.
Development
Ubisoft Montreal began development on Watch Dogs in 2009.[42] Ubisoft Montreal's creative director Jonathan Morin noted that Watch Dogs is designed to "go beyond the limits of today's open world games", referencing both its use of information as a plot point, and allowing players to control the entire city through its hacking mechanics.
For Watch Dogs, Ubisoft Montreal built a new game engine called Disrupt.[43] The engine was originally intended for a different game focused on driving. 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.[44] Watch Dogs runs in 900p on PlayStation 4 and 792p on Xbox One; both versions of the game run at 30fps. Creative director Jonathan Morin explained that he's more concerned with the overall experience rather than the technical minutiae. Morin added that people tend to forget that achieving higher fidelity visuals is easier for corridor shooters than it is for open-world games.[45]
In order to achieve realism in the game's hacking mechanic, the game production team worked with Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab. The developers sent some of the game designs to Kaspersky, who then gave feedback. "Sometimes they say, 'Yeah, that's possible, but change that word,' or, 'That's not the way it works'", said senior producer Dominic Guay.[46] When developing the hacking mechanic, the team focused on reducing it to one button; "You want to have one button, so that people don't have to swallow 'how' on top of 'when' and 'why' to use those things", said Morin.[47]
When developing the game, Ubisoft prioritised development for the eighth generation consoles and PC.[48] Guay stated that the Wii U GamePad is considered a "natural" fit for Watch Dogs.[49]
The team travelled to Chicago during development to record NPC dialogue, to achieve the distinct accent. To record the dialogue, two studios ran simultaneously in Chicago for about six weeks. "You will never see exactly the same profile on any NPC anywhere in the game", said lead story designer Kevin Shortt.[50]
Watch Dogs was officially unveiled by Ubisoft during their press conference at E3 2012. They released the debut trailer on the same day.[51][52] The game missed its original projected 19 November 2013 release date, pushed back to early 2014 to allow for further polishing.[53] The release date was later confirmed as 27 May 2014 for all platforms except Wii U,[54] which was delayed to the fourth quarter of 2014.[55][56] On May 14, 2014, Ubisoft announced that Watch Dogs had "gone gold", and was officially sent off to manufacturing.[57] To encourage pre-order sales for the game, Ubisoft collaborated with several retail outlets to provide special edition versions of the game. The "Dedsec Edition", for example, includes a unique case packaging for the game, a game map, a figurine of Aiden Pearce and unlock codes for additional content for use in the game.[58]
On 15 February 2013, a leaked promotional image suggested that Watch Dogs would launch in December 2013 for "all home consoles",[59] which led to speculation about whether the game would launch on eighth generation consoles.[60][61][62] During the Sony press conference on 20 February 2013, Watch Dogs was confirmed to be coming to the PlayStation 4.[63] Shortly afterwards, Ubisoft confirmed that the game would also be released for the Wii U,[64] after some retailers had listed it for pre-order.[65] On 21 May 2013, Ubisoft revealed that an Xbox One version of Watch Dogs was also in development.[66]
The exclusive GameStop pre-order poster for the game was created by illustrator Alex Ross, a native of Chicago, where the game is set. Ross emphasized that setting in the image by placing the Willis Tower and the elevated train tracks in the background.[67]
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