Ubisoft has said the recently released Skull and Bones has achieved “record player engagement” since launch, although it has yet to announce how many copies it’s sold or how many players it has.
Ubisoft CEO defends Skull and Bones’ $70 price despite its live service leanings, calls it ‘quadruple-A’
09.02.2024 - 13:57 / videogameschronicle.com / Yves Guillemot / Ubisoft Singapore / Chris Scullion / Ubisoft
Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot has defended the $70 price tag for Skull and Bones, calling it a “quadruple-A game”.
During a Q&A session as part of a conference call discussing Ubisoft’s Q3 sales for its fiscal year 2024, one caller pointed out that Skull and Bones now appears to be taking a more live service approach – the game’sYear 1 roadmap was recently published, for example.
The caller asked why Ubisoft was insisting on charging $70 for the game and potentially limiting the size of its player base, suggesting a free-to-play model may better suit the live service mechanics and give it a better chance of building a community.
Guillemot replied with an assertion that Skull and Bones deserves to be a full-price game because of its scale.
“You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game,” he said. “It’s a very big game, and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. It’s a really full, triple… quadruple-A game, that will deliver in the long run.”
An open beta for Skull and Bones started today and will run until February 11. The beta supports cross-progression and cross-play. Progression will be capped at the rank of Brigand (tier 6 rank 1) and will carry over to the full game.
Following a troubled development that saw the game delayed on a number of occasions and rebooted in 2020, Skull & Bones will be finally released on February 16, 2024 priced $69.99.
Players will be able to play the game three days early if they pre-order the $99.99 Premium edition, which includes two extra missions, cosmetic items and a Smuggler Pass token to unlock the premium battle pass.
Although Skull and Bones is finally nearing its release, its long-running development problems have shown no signs of abating.
A Kotaku report in September said the game had lost its third creative director, Elisabeth Pellen, who had been responsible for rebooting the project after its initial 2018 release target was missed.
Pellen, who most notably wrote and directed 2003 shooter XIII and led level design for Splinter Cell’s first sequel, Pandora Tomorrow, had been expected to remain at the Singapore studio until at least the end of this year, it was claimed.
“Five years ago, Elisabeth Pellen went to Ubisoft Singapore with a mission to reboot the creative direction of Skull and Bones,” a Ubisoft spokesperson said at the time. “She succeeded, and the Skull and Bones team is now fulfilling her vision to deliver a unique naval action RPG experience to our players.”
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Authors
Popular Topics
gamingbolt.com
28.02.2024 / 13:48
Skull and Bones Season 1 is Live Now
Skull and Bones finally launched earlier this month, and though it has done quite the opposite of setting the world on fire with its critical reception, for those who’re sailing the high seas in the online pirate game, Ubisoft has released its first free season of post-launch content.
gamingbolt.com
28.02.2024 / 13:47
Skull and Bones Has the Second-Highest Engagement for a Ubisoft Game
Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones finally launched earlier this month after years of delays and development issues, but the online pirate game was, predictably enough, met with less-than-stellar reviews upon release. On the commercial front, the full extent of how the game is performing isn’t yet clear, but at least in terms of average engagement per user, it seems to be doing well enough.
eurogamer.net
27.02.2024 / 23:19
Skull and Bones' first season of live-service content, Raging Tides, is here
Skull and Bones, the oft-delayed pirate game from Ubisoft that finally arrived earlier this month following almost a decade of development, has released its first season of post-launch content on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC — introducing, among other things, new world events, new contracts and bounties, plus a battle-pass-style progression track.
videogameschronicle.com
27.02.2024 / 19:35
Skull and Bones Season 1 has launched
Ubisoft has launched Skull and Bones’ first seasonal update, Raging Tides.
gamingbolt.com
23.02.2024 / 16:21
Skull and Bones Has Less Than 1 Million Players – Rumor
While Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League falls short of WB Games’ expectations, Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones isn’t doing much better. Sources speaking to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson report that it had around 850,000 players.
tech.hindustantimes.com
21.02.2024 / 07:09
Ubisoft's Skull and Bones sets sail: A new era in pirate gaming begins
Ubisoft's highly anticipated pirate-themed video game, "Skull and Bones," has finally made its debut after years of production challenges and delays. Launched on February 16, the game has gained significant attention, considering the unconventional choice of pirates as its central theme in the gaming world.
gamerant.com
21.02.2024 / 02:17
Assassin's Creed 4 Seems to Be Getting a Boost from Skull and Bones
Ubisoft's ten-year-old Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag has been enjoying a boost in player count as its spiritual successor Skull and Bones has finally been released after years of delays. Having been revealed all the way back in 2017, Skull and Bones takes the lauded naval combat introduced by Assassin's Creed 4 and expands upon it as an ongoing live service experience, letting players partake in online ship battles in a shared open world.
digitaltrends.com
19.02.2024 / 21:23
Skull and Bones: Ubisoft’s pirate adventure is more red flag than Black Flag
Skull and Bones MSRP $70.00 Score Details Pros
gamesreviews.com
19.02.2024 / 16:49
Ubisoft Original Game Skull and Bones First Impression Review (Xbox Series X)
I feel like it has been a while since we had an open-world pirate game, but we got one for 2024. Ubisoft and one of Ubisoft’s Original Games Skull and Bones which was first announced back in 2017 by Ubisoft Singapore at an E3 event. I remember because I was there when it first got announced and I was excited because I love video games that incorporate wooden ships and pirates. This game when I first heard about it, I remember when I was a kid I used to play a lot of Sid Meier’s Pirates which still to this day is one of my favorite pirate games ever. Even though Skull and Bones is nowhere on the same level as Sid Meier’s Pirates, it has some good elements, and that is something we will talk about right now.
eurogamer.net
19.02.2024 / 11:12
Skull and Bones' Metacritic user reviews open to "generally unfavourable" scores
Despite claims it is a «quadruple-A» live-service experience, Skull and Bones's user Metacritic score has taken a pummelling since the pirate ship game was released on Friday, 16th February.