Allegations of Watch Dogs reportedly downgraded graphics have surfaced online, and with side-by-side comparisons of the E3 2012 gameplay demo and this month's PS4 gameplay as reference.

A YouTube video, courtesy of Jason Knothe, compares scenes from the 2013 E3 demo (PC Dev Kit) and the 2014 March gameplay (PS4). Based on the comments, the comparison reveals huge visual differences between footages - sparking protest online.

"Publishers Should Stop B**ls**tting Us With Target Renders: #StopFalseAdvertisement," reads a forum title on NeoGAF. The thread accuses various developers of false advertising, citing "recent Watch Dogs and Dark Souls II 'degradeatons'" which reportedly shows how publishers are being "deliberately dishonest about their upcoming products."

"Since decades they've been deceiving (us) Video-Gamers in the form of "Target Renders", Bullshots and False Promises, in order to build up hype and postive press for their games and tested how far they can go with this extremely dubious practise(s)," reads the post.

Watch Dogs creative director, Jonathan Morin, has previously denied the alleged scale-down last September. "There's no scale down in quality, especially the next-gen versions," Morin told VideoGamer. "It's pretty much the opposite. What we showed at E3 2012 in a lot of respects was less good. I think it's in the details. So no, there's no scale down."

But the recently released trailer for the hacking game has reignited rumors of the downgrade. Ubisoft Benelux PR and events manager Tessa Vilyn addressed the rumor on Twitter, saying "@Markusstoltz @YaraskyGaming it is impossible, of couse it is not downgraded at all. :)"

"@evil_avatar really they didn't downgrade anything,its just a little different then when you first saw it i guess. It really does look great," she clarified again, in another tweet.

As for the NeoGAF posts, Vilyn tweets, "@DanielMulligan @NeoGAFShitPosts They just need to wait and see.. :) #thanks."

Will Watch Dogs prove protesters wrong on its May 27 current-gen and past-gen release? Share your thoughts below.

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