Watch Dogs’ Drop-In Multiplayer Isn’t A Requirement

According to Watch Dogs‘ lead game designer Danny Belanger, players will not be forced to engage in the drop-in, drop-out multiplayer aspect of the game.

Recently, Polygon viewed the Twitch live stream, where Belanger revealed that the multiplayer component of Watch Dogs can be turned off completely and that all of the game’s online activities act as part of the main menu. He then went on to elaborate about the specific functions of multiplayer:

“There’s something important called the shield. If someone comes into your game, they can’t come in right after so you can’t be spammed in that way – unless you become aggressive and you start going into other people’s games, then you really become available. But it’s just a player choice in the end.”

Additionally, Watch Dogs’ creative director Jonathan Morin revealed some crucial information about why the team made the decision to delay the highly anticipated game last year. Exploring Watch Dogs‘ systemic design, where control is stripped from developers and bestowed upon players, revealed numerous glitches in the game’s playability. He gave a specific example by stating that:

“When you start hacking like crazy…we started to discover possibilities when there was too much stuff to hack around you. And it was showing flaws in our targeting system. It was harder to select stuff and hack it, and when you’re under stress, cops are on your ass and everything, it’s just not fun to feel like you’re failing because of a flaw in the system.”

Watch Dogs will be arriving for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on May 27. The Wii U version is expected to launch later this year.