The long-awaited Ubisoft game has ceased to be. The multiplayer pirate game that had been all but forgotten all this time has resurfaced this week to finally reveal some gameplay, information, and most importantly, a release date. The end of the tunnel seems to be drawing near for Ubisoft Singapore’s first new IP, announced five years ago. But then, what has happened all these years?
Summary
- Skull and Bones: a pirate story that started well
- 2018-2022: Ubisoft radio silence
- Blurred vision, technical limitations… The rumors
Skull and Bones: a pirate story that started well
It all starts in June 2017. E3 is in full swing and Ubisoft offers its usual conference. In addition to announcing new deliveries of its star licenses, that is, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Far Cry 5, a new intellectual property got noticed: Skull and Bones. A game of pirates and naval battles, it is inevitably reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, that opus that allowed you to discover the life of a pirate and navigate the seas.
We quickly learned that it was during the development of the latter that the project was born. During 2013, while the teams at Ubisoft Singapore were finalizing the title, they embarked on some experiments with the aim of producing a game never seen before. During these experiments, the idea arose to offer a pirate game to discover with friends. Especially inspired by this new proposal (Sea of Thieves had not been released at the time), the developers embarked on the long journey that would be the development of Skull and Bones.
Little by little, the concept becomes clearer. The game will certainly be multiplayer, but it will also have to offer new content on a regular basis. As for the substance, the developers want to take us in the waves of the Indian Ocean, to break with the usual narrative of the pirates of the Caribbean. Add to this gameplay focused on loot hunting, sea battles, and heavy customization, and we get the Skull and Bones that was shown in 2017.
As soon as it was announced, a strong community was created around the Ubisoft game, which aims to give them an important place in the creation process. Leveraging the participatory aspect of Ghost Recon Phantoms development (beta and other fan contributions), Ubisoft Singapore had already invited a group of gamers, the Guardians of the Codeto come test the game and give feedback during a dedicated workshop. A closed beta has also been launched which, according to the study, is achieving a record level of participation for a new Ubisoft license.
Thanks to initiatives like this, it’s stronger than ever for Skull and Bones to return to E3 2018. At the event, we even got to play it, and the game had a lot going for it, almost acting as a technical showcase for Ubisoft. But here’s the thing, if the game was shown more this time, has also been postponed to 2019, much to the chagrin of fans. Unfortunately for them, this is only the first in a long list of postponements. Because if everything seemed to be going well for Skull and Bones, the game was about to start a long journey through the desert.
2018-2022: Ubisoft radio silence
At the end of 2018, Justin Farren, creative director of Skull and Bones, jumps ship. If we have little information on the subject, the research carried out by Gamasutra and revealed in 2020 suggests that the environment was not really the best in the studies. Indeed, the man is quoted in numerous testimonies that point to a work environment that would be toxic and full of more than inappropriate comments. It is impossible to say if this caused his departure, but we can imagine that the situation was not conducive to a serene development of the title. This investigation even led Ubisoft to fire another studio member in 2020: Hugues Ricour, director of Ubisoft Singapore and involved in the production of Skull and Bones.
These departures have inevitably had an impact on the development of the game. Changing teams and management in the middle of a project is never easy. In the end, the announcement of a new postponement during the year 2019 is not really a surprise. What is most surprising, however, is the radio silence that followed. For almost a year, there was no news about the title. To reassure players, Elisabeth Pellen finally spoke on Ubisoft’s website to explain the delay. She would be due to the great ambitions of the title, as well as a new vision that would have emerged over the months.
Many of you are wondering why we have had to delay our launch. The answer is that we simply needed more time. We dreamed of something bigger for Skull & Bones, and with those ambitions naturally came bigger challenges.
These challenges caused necessary delays in our game. In recent months, fundamental questions have had to be addressed, such as: how to modernize the classic pirate game? How can we ensure a more immersive and visceral experience? How can we create great and memorable moments in the game? To answer most of these questions, it was clear that we needed more development time.
And then the study immediately returns to silence. In 2021, the official Skull and Bones account does not post a single tweet. The game page is slowly running out of information. Until this week’s presentation, the official website only redirected players to the Insider Program, without giving any details about the title itself. Following the release of Ubisoft’s financials for 2021, we even learned that the game is delayed again, without it even being officially announced.
Little by little, the hope of ever seeing this title published is fading. Skull and Bones was given the title of “arlesienne” and the hype around the game died down. After four years without new material and a single installment in three years, the title has decided, against all odds, to return this year. With some information from a few months ago and, above all, with this week’s Ubisoft Forward, Skull and Bones has shown us that it is not dead, far from it. Indeed, the game is almost finished and it will finally go on sale this year, specifically on November 8, 2022. But then, if indeed the development has advanced during all this time and the project has not been abandoned as some thought, How come Ubisoft has been so quiet about it?
Blurred vision, technical limitations… The rumors
If we don’t have any official information at this level, there are still some points that explain the strange silence around Skull and Bones, starting with the chaotic situation in the studio. As mentioned above, Ubisoft Singapore was at the center of the accusations against the French gaming giant. So much so that in the summer of 2021, the TAFEP (Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices) launched an investigation into the working conditions of employees. Once again, it is difficult to develop a game in the conditions reported, but also in the middle of an investigation of this type.
Note that a completely different investigation was published a few days earlier for Kotaku. He claims to have collected testimonies from some 20 people who work or have worked on the project, the online diary gives an account of the chaotic development process. If their lines are anything to go by, Skull and Bones hasn’t just changed their vision over the years, they’ve had the most difficulty finding one and keeping it.
They tell us about a game that could have been set in a fantasy world, but ended up in the Indian Ocean. It talks about the many questions that have remained unresolved for years, such as whether to control only the ship or its captain, or the size and functioning of the map. Others, less fundamental, would have occupied the team members’ time for several months, and finally withdrew completely.
Lack of clarity in decision making, constant changes of opinion, very different game systems that pile up… The Kotaku article reports a fact that is as confusing as it is frustrating. However, it should be noted that some of the stories contradict each other, making it difficult to fully understand the reality of this development process. However, what is certain is that it was not the clearest or the most relaxing.
Additionally, the various postponements have left Ubisoft Singapore with more technical issues. We are in 2022 and the latest consoles are the PS5 and the Xbox Series. Skull and Bones will be a next-gen game, as it is scheduled to be released only on these consoles. But to get to this point, we have had to work hard and, above all, start from scratch many times. When the project was born, it was the time of the PS3 and the Xbox One. So over time, the teams at Ubisoft Singapore were forced to go back to their original work to keep up with the technical standards of the PS4/Xbox One era, and now PS5/Xbox Series. So the time lost in incessantly updating the game must have been considerable.
If Skull and Bones were owned by a rival studio, it would have been abandoned a dozen times already.
But then, if development was so chaotic, why is the game still running? Some say it’s because Ubisoft would have already put a lot of money on the table. (nearly $120 million according to Kotaku) and that the project cannot afford to be abandoned. Others point to an alleged contract with the State of Singapore, which would have allowed Ubisoft to open a studio in the country in exchange for the development of a new triple A IP made in Singapore.
Whether for the first reason or the second, Skull and Bones has stayed the course. Let’s see if the game is worth the wait for November 8. Unfortunately, the wind is not really in your favor. Because if some were reassured by this week’s presentation, the release date will be a real handicap. Indeed, Skull and Bones should go on sale a day before one of the most anticipated games of the year: God of War Ragnarok. To stay on course, the pirate game will have to be on solid ground.