So there you are on a spring night in a beautiful city - minding your own business, definitely not planning to commit a string of felony cyber-crimes.
On a whim, you duck into a shop offering quick phone repairs. Turns out they can fix your phone really fast these days. As the clerk hands you back your repaired smartphone, he motions you closer, and tells you that he’s put “a special app” on your device.
You follow him outside (instead of complaining and immediately demanding your hard-earned money back), where he proceeds to show you that your phone is now capable of making city streetlights explode. Moreover, you can hack car doors open with the swipe of a thumb, make money shoot out of ATM machines like you’re Scrooge McDuck at Las Vegas, and even cause a car accident by changing traffic lights. And then the cops show up…
To reveal it’s all a gag.
In one of the most elaborate uses of prank marketing we’ve seen, Ubisoft rigged an entire city block with special effects, all to give the illusion that passers-by could control the city from their smartphones. It’s a complex setup involving lights, multiple actors, and even stunt drivers.
Most impressively, the prank was apparently pulled off multiple times, in order to fool as many people as possible.
Check out the full video below. Watch Dogs drops May 27th, and we couldn’t be more excited.
Peter Yankowski
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