Bringing together triple A game developer and publisher Ubisoft, via one of their most prestigious IPs, and the most sought after British rapper, Stormzy, was the result of a wide-ranging, long term and truly creative collaboration. Initial artist potentials were devised based on how well they'd fit inside the world Ubisoft had built for their upcoming third game in the Watch Dogs series; Watch Dogs: Legion, and also the artist's likelihood to really lean in and engage with the collaboration - a close two-way relationship. 

Stormzy fell in love with the idea. The game being set in London and the Ubisoft team taking the time to lovingly recreate much of the capital's boroughs with astonishing attention to detail, instantly drew Stormzy in. "...this is my city and I love it dearly, it's a big part of who I am as a man and an artist and my character" he told the BBC in an interview about his role in the game. His feeling was that this near future vision of London, in which he is part of a resistance fighting for freedom from oppressive regimes and for a unity of the people, captured a creative notion and tone that felt true to him.

While initially Stormzy’s mission was planned downloadable content for the game that would feature post-release; the team at Ubisoft loved working with Stormzy so much and were so proud of what had been created, they decided to include it in the game’s ‘Golden Path’ - the main story missions that every player must complete to finish the game’s central narrative.

Alongside his direct inclusion in the game, the official music video for 'Rainfall' was shot entirely in the game's engine, created by the artists and animators at Ubisoft. The release of that video through Stormzy's channels was coordinated inline with Watch Dogs' release schedule. This created a truly end to end collaboration, with both the game featuring the artist and the artist featuring the game throughout their individual creative spaces.

This lead to Stormzy playing himself within the game's narrative. He travelled to Ubisoft's Montreal HQ, where their cutting edge mo-cap studio transported a painstakingly crafted 3D model of him into the world of WDL. He acted in the scenes and recorded a performance of the featured track, 'Rainfall'. During the course of the game's story, players have to defend Stormzy from waves of enemies while his performance plays out on a pirate radio.

The in-engine video for Rainfall has amassed almost 4 million views to date. On Spotify the song is sitting at 18 million streams. The initial announcement saw the track’s audio streams increase by a huge 91% with an overall DUS increase of 82%. The track and in-game video release saw an even more impressive 168% increase in audio streams, while the DUS grew by 242%. It’s also worth noting that the track maintained these streaming and DUS numbers in the weeks beyond the initial release of the game, as the post-launch campaign continued.

The game itself sold over 10s of million units to date and 1.9million in the first 3 days, with a truly global reach.