Watch Dogs: Legion Online - What We Know So Far

Back when Watch Dogs: Legion first dropped in late October 2020, multiplayer modes were nowhere to be found. At the time, Ubisoft stated that a new, free experience – Watch Dogs: Legion Online — would arrive in December 2020. Unfortunately, Ubisoft had to backtrack on that commitment shortly thereafter. In November 2020, the company pushed back the release of its multiplayer update to "early 2021." After that, several months passed before fans heard anything new about Watch Dogs: Legion Online.

Luckily, the next news drop was a very good one. It gave fans an extended look at Legion Online, and offered up an exact date for when the new content would officially launch. There are still a few questions remaining — the kind that'll only be answered once people actually dive into the update. For now, here's what is known so far about Watch Dogs: Legion Online, including info about its release date, trailer, gameplay, and modes.

Looking to team up with some of your pals in Watch Dogs: Legion Online? There's no need to infiltrate Ubisoft headquarters for top-secret release date info. You don't have to hack Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot to get the deets on a launch date. That information is out in the open, so grab your appointment book or open up your calendar app. Here's when you can expect Watch Dogs: Legion Online to go live.

According to Ubisoft, Watch Dogs: Legion Online officially arrives on March 9, 2021. On that date — or perhaps even before it — you'll presumably get an update for Watch Dogs: Legion on your PC or console that adds the new content. It's worth stressing once again that this update is totally free if you already own Watch Dogs: Legion, so there's nothing else for you to buy. All you have to do is patiently wait for Ubisoft to flip the switch — then you'll be playing Watch Dogs: Legion's new multiplayer mode.

A good trailer can drum up hype for a new game, or — in this case — a new mode coming to a game. It can help set the stage for what's coming, and help players understand why they should be excited about it. Watch Dogs: Legion Online didn't get a trailer in the traditional sense — there aren't a bunch of fast cuts and explosions in the video Ubisoft published to YouTube. What the company did put out, however, seems to target substance over style.

In the Watch Dogs: Legion Online trailer, Ubisoft breaks down what the new mode has to offer players of the base game. It previews some of the missions players will inevitably take on with friends, and explains how those who take part in Legion Online will progress and build up their characters. It may sound cliché to say that, in Watch Dogs: Legion Online, at least, the most memorable moments may be the friendships you make (or break) along the way. By opting out of a flashier trailer, though, that appears to be the message Ubisoft is trying to send.

Watch Dogs: Legion on its own is a critically acclaimed title. IGN, for instance, said "its sandbox-style approach is a good idea," and praised new additions that made the game "feel more varied" than past entries. The outlet ended up giving Watch Dogs: Legion an 8 out of 10. For that reason, it doesn't seem like Ubisoft is messing with that winning formula when it comes to Watch Dogs: Legion Online.

Judging by the preview video for Watch Dogs: Legion Online, a lot is changing and very little is changing at once. If you played through Watch Dogs: Legion's campaign, a lot of gameplay elements — recruiting, upgrading, and so forth — may look familiar to you, but with slight tweaks to account for an always-online, constantly evolving mode. The real draw here seems to be the ability to team up with friends for even more complex missions and operations — the kind that require a lot of timing and coordination. If that sounds like fun to you, Watch Dogs: Legion Online may be worth checking out.

Because Watch Dogs: Legion Online is a free addition to the game, you may think Ubisoft isn't adding a lot of new content. Based on what's been shown of it, however, that doesn't look to be the case. Legion Online appears to be a substantial new slice of the Legion experience, with a variety of new activities for players to take part in and the promise of even more content in the future. And to start, Legion Online will have a few different modes for players to choose from.

There's the open world experience that operates similar to Legion, where you can cruise around London, get into skirmishes, and recruit new operatives. Co-op Missions let you team up with a few buddies to complete objectives in the world. Tactical Ops activities serve as the "endgame" content for Legion Online, and require you to assemble a finely tuned squad to take on more complicated jobs. And finally, there's a Spiderbot Arena mode for those who want to mix PvP with the game's best gadget.