Journalist Violet Blue (left) and Thomas Geffroyd of Ubisoft talk about Watch Dogs 2's realism.
Categories

Behind the headlines of real-world hacking and Watch Dogs 2

George Orwell got it wrong about Big Brother watching you. Instead, it’s lots of Little Brothers who are watching all of us via the Internet of Things — or making billions of everyday objects smart and connected.

That’s part of the premise behind the Ubisoft video game Watch Dogs 2, and it turned out to be prescient when it debuted back in December. At our recent GamesBeat Summit 2017, we went behind the headlines of hacking to look at what was real and what was fiction in the game about hackers and “hacktivist” culture in San Francisco.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.