Weeks ahead of launch, Ubisoft announced that Watch Dogs: Legion would receive online functionality in a free update on December 3rd. Such plans have since been nixed, however. In the wake of other ongoing issues, the development team has chosen to focus its efforts on stabilizing the game. As a result, the online component is now on track to release on an unspecified date in early 2021.
The initial step in alleviating the issues that continue to plague many a player’s enjoyment of the game is a new patch. Title Update 2.20 will roll out across all platforms this week, addressing a bevy of problems. PS4 and PS5 players can specifically expect the patch to tackle game crashes and stability improvements. The patch notes for the two PlayStation consoles are as follows:
PlayStation 4
- Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash if a character model was not loaded correctly.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when quitting to the Main Menu.
- Added further stability improvements and fixes to the game to prevent crashes.
PlayStation 5
- Fixed an issue where the game would crash on game launch when the graphic settings (e.g. brightness) were changed.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when quitting to the Main Menu.
- Fixed an issue that could cause a cloud save download to fail on first try.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when entering the EPC area in “Lost in the Process” mission.
- Fixed and issue that could cause longer save times.
With regards to delaying the online mode, a blog post from Ubisoft explains the push counts as part of a commitment to first stabilize the overall experience for all players. The statement reads in part,
As part of our commitment to fixing the game’s issues, we’ve decided to delay the Online mode of Watch Dogs: Legion to early 2021. This will allow us to focus on fixing issues with single player, and it will give us more time to test the Online experience to help ensure a smooth launch of the mode.
Watch Dogs: Legion is in stores now for the PS4, PS5, Google Stadia, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.
[Source: Ubisoft, Ubisoft Forums via Watch Dogs: Legion on Twitter]