The mystery surrounding Skull & Bones continues. Ubisoft’s swashbuckling naval combat game was originally supposed to come out in late 2018, before being delayed, then delayed again. Earlier this year, Jason Schreier reported the game had been rebooted multiple times and likely wouldn’t arrive any time soon, and we haven’t heard anything substantial since then.
Well, a new report from the reliable folks at Video Games Chronicle may shed new light on what’s happening with Skull & Bones. According to VGC, Skull & Bones is struggling to differentiate itself from other Ubisoft franchises and its most recent reboot has seen the game drift in more of a “live service” direction. Word is, the game will feature regularly updated quests and events and a world that will change over time depending on the actions of the community. In other words, it seems Skull & Bones is aiming to emulate something like Fortnite, or perhaps rival pirate game Sea of Thieves, rather than Ubisoft’s more traditional GaaS titles like Rainbow Six Siege or The Division 2.
This change is direction has been accompanied by a change in leadership, with Elisabeth Pellen joining the Skull & Bones team as its new creative director. Pellen is a member of Ubisoft’s powerful Editorial Team that decides which games the company makes, and earlier in her career she worked as director of the cell-shaded shooter XIII and lead level designer of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. The fact that Ubisoft has assigned such a high-profile name to oversee Skull & Bones would seemingly show they still have a lot of confidence in the concept. Of course, take this all with a grain of salt for now – hopefully the wait for an official Skull & Bones update from Ubisoft won’t be too excruciatingly long.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Will Skull & Bones ever get made? Is the live service approach a turnoff or does it have potential?
