UNEASY ALLIES

As the rare example of an overtly political game with big publisher backing, Watch

Dogs: Legion benefits in terms of development resources and audience reach. But it’s not all positive. “With that reach there are also trade-offs,” Hocking says. “The broader the audience, the wider the range of tastes, preferences and sensibilities you need to be able to appeal to. It’s critical as creators that we deeply understand the political implications and statements being made by our games and our content so we can be confident we are addressing our themes responsibly and respectfully.” With this in mind, it’s understandable that indie developers with political intent may be wary of signing publishing deals – although neither Kan nor De Fault rule it out entirely. “We have had some lovely conversations with some very nice indie publishers,” Kan says, “but I think at our stage in development, publishers are curious about how we will reach our target audience with our game.” De Fault notes that there are small boutique publishers picking up political games, “usually as ports after the game has already been released on PC” – but, he says, “no large publisher funding a portfolio of truly uncensored political games exists.”