Watch Dogs system requirements announced, specify 64-bit OS and minimum 6 GB of RAM

If Watch Dogs is to be believed, you can hack almost any electronic device in a city using nothing but a smart phone. First, though, you'll need to run Watch Dogs, which is going to require something with significantly more power inside of it. Ubisoft have updated their digital store with the open world hacking game's system requirements, and there are some surprises to be found in its recommended list of components.

Minimum

• Supported OS: Windows Vista SP2 64bit, Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8 64bit
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66Ghz or AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0Ghz
• RAM: 6 GB
• Video Card: 1024 VRAM DirectX 11 with Shader Model 5.0 (see supported list)
• Sound Card: DirectX 9 compatible Sound Card
• This product supports 64-bit operating systems ONLY

Recommended

• Processor: Core i7 3770 @ 3.5Ghz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0Ghz
• RAM: 8 GB
• Video Card: 2048 VRAM DirectX 11 with Shader Model 5.0 or higher (see supported list)
• Sound Card: Surround Sound 5.1 capable sound card
• Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
• nVidia GeForce GTX460 or better, GT500, GT600, GT700 series;
• AMD Radeon HD5850 or better, HD6000, HD7000, R7 and R9 series
• Intel® Iris™ Pro HD 5200

The 64-bit OS requirement is somewhat restrictive, if increasingly commonplace. What really raises an eyebrow is that you'll need 6GB of RAM just to hit the minimum suggestion. Steam's hardware stats, an admittedly unreliable window into PC gaming hardware, suggests over 50% of its user-base are carrying 4GB or less. Not all of those will be machines specced to compete in the AAA gaming space, but even so, there are sure to be some users caught out.

In case you want to confirm these specifications for yourself, let me take you through the process of navigating Ubisoft's store.

2. Click here . If, through some seemingly random miracle, you are taken to the relevant page, then congratulations!
4. Click the "read more" link towards the bottom, then scroll down, down, and down again until you reach the specifications.

In my experience, the odds of that working are slim. Here's the alternative method:

2. Click here . Be told that you've been redirected to the store home page for your country, seemingly regardless of what country the link in question comes from.
4. Idly wonder how it is possible that a distribution store from a major publisher is unable to handle a cross-country redirect to the same item.
6. Click one of the roughly 372 possible versions of Watch Dogs, including, but not limited to, the Digital Special Edition, the Vigilante Edition, the Jerk In A Leather Jacket Edition, or the Oh God What Is This I Just Want To Buy The Damn Game Edition.
8. Click for the PC version, assuming that edition even has a PC version.
10. Click the "read more" link towards the bottom, then scroll down, down, and down again until you reach the specifications.