Watch Dogs: Legion Director Clint Hocking On Embracing Its Political Themes

It's been 12 years since Clint Hocking last had his name on a game that shipped: Far Cry 2 in 2008. He's bounced around several studios--LucasArts, Amazon, Valve--but has come back around to Ubisoft to take the lead on the upcoming Watch Dogs: Legion, which is set to launch on October 29 this year. In addition to a four-hour hands-on demo with the game, I had a chance to speak briefly with Hocking about how the development team have approached building its unmistakably political world.

Watch Dogs: Legion pulls a lot of inspiration from the struggles we've seen in the real world; in the game, you'll see protests signs and banners, messages of grassroots resistance to fight police brutality, and London quickly turning into a tech dystopia run by an authoritarian regime. Hocking has made the political connection very clear in how he's spoken about the game. During our preview presentation before Ubisoft Forward, he stated that "social inequalities are growing, partisan politics are stoking the flames of division, nationalism is on the rise, unemployment is up" to describe the backdrop to the narrative. And he provided more insight in our conversation below.

If you want impressions of the demo experience, be sure to check out my preview on how Watch Dogs: Legion's play-as-anyone feature opens up wild gameplay possibilities. You can also read about Watch Dogs: Legion's story and get a deeper dive into the political context it's working with. The following interview took place over Discord and has been edited for readability and clarity.