Watch Dogs 2, the unannounced sequel to Ubisoft’s open-world action title, will need to be developed within a culture of creative risk-taking, a Ubisoft studio executive has said.

Jonathan Morin, the creative executive on the debut project, and likely a figurehead in the development of Watch Dogs 2, said it is crucial that his team does not rest on its laurels.

“You have to carry on taking risks,” Morin told GamesTM.

“I will not do this job if there is no risk in it, that would just be boring. You shouldn’t prevent yourself from trying something just because it’s hard and the solution is not apparent.”

Another key objective for the project, said Morin, is that the game does not simply retread old ground.

“When you start a new project [and new IP], it’s a blank page and everything you do is what you want to do,” he said. “With a sequel, there is more pressure to push a brand forward and we now have to appeal to fans in a new way.”

Broadly speaking, Morin said the sequel should allow players to create stories for themselves, without being too overbearing or expositional with the narrative. He explains, “we want to allow them to play with a very different state of mind, not wrap up concepts for them.”

Ubisoft has sold around 9 million copies of Watch Dogs into retail and online, the publisher has claimed. The title was originally scheduled to ship at the end of 2013, but a delay at the eleventh hour pushed its release date to May.

Morin says he understands some observations regarding the game’s weaknesses.

“I don’t think Watch Dogs is perfect in any way and there’s a lot of room for improvement. But you don’t always see this when you ship a game. We deliver what we believe the brand should be at the time. But afterward, when you cool down after five and a half years [of development] and take your vacations and people play the game, certain elements become clear. They let you continue to bring what you envision to the next level with the fans included this time, which is where I think it really gets interesting.”