Time to add a new entry to the ever growing list of AAA games that were moderately or heavily inspired by GTA 5, Rockstar's hit open-world crime game. The massively popular title has been released on five platforms, has sold over 65 million copies not counting digital sales and continues to turn a massive profit — damn right other games want to match its success.
Among others, Fallout 4 is known to have taken inspiration from GTA 5 in terms of player freedom, allowing gamers to explore and experience the game world with little to no restriction, while also giving them a wide range of interaction options with other characters and objects.
GTA 5 was also an obvious inspiration for Ubisoft's open-world vigilante hacking adventure, Watch_Dogs, which was released in 2014. The game was set in and around a liberal interpretation of a large American city; it had a heavy emphasis on stealing vehicles and driving; it was a third person shooter-adventure hybrid; it focused on the player doing illegal things and finally had tons of side missions and collectibles strewn about the game world.
While the massive hype around Watch_Dogs had people decree it the "GTA Killer" everyone was waiting for, in the end it fell flat. While most reviewers enjoyed the game, they called it out on a few flaws. The public response was even less favorable, with the community crying foul on the graphical downgrade. Even so, the game had solid sales and if it counts for anything, we loved the thing in spite of the issues.
Ubisoft never hid the fact that they wanted Watch_Dogs to be a long-running franchise. They did plenty of setting-up in the first game, with tons of backstory, a cliffhanger ending and official confirmation that it and Assassin's Creed occur in the same fictional universe.
