Ubisoft first revealed Watch Dogs long before the new generation of consoles were even formally announced, but the studio says even in the early stages their vision for it was very aligned with Sony's plans for the PlayStation 4.

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"Creating the game on PS4 was fascinating," creative director Jonathan Morin said, in an interview on the PlayStation EU Blog . "It was uncanny to see that Watch Dogs was so close to what Sony wanted to do with the console. So Sony understood what we were doing with the game. We were a really great match."For example, game designer Danny Belanger noted that integrating multiplayer into the single-player was well in-line with some of Sony's PS4 design pillars: notably, a social, integrated experience. He also said the increased horsepower let them realize more factors vital to building an open world, like lighting and water effects, and the amount of people present in the crowded streets of Chicago. The touch pad on the DualShock is also being used to imitate the ease of a smartphone, which serves as protagonist Aiden's Pearce's main tool."From an animation point of view we’re always running out of memory, especially when you start developing towards the end of a console generation, so PS4 allowed things like reduced animation compression and more variety in civilians," added animation director Colin Graham. "From my point of view it’s a bit like working with an unlimited budget because we can’t fill the memory budget on PS4."

Watch Dogs is due on May 27 , though Ubisoft may be planning a beta test before launch. Ubisoft's Jonathan Morin recently said it will take about 40 hours to complete, on average.

Steve Watts is a freelance writer who smiles and winks sometimes, just in case cameras really are watching him. You can read more of his keen insights by following him on Twitter and IGN