For the last few decades, Ubisoft has sat comfortably at the top of the video game publisher pyramid, sitting right alongside EA, and just underneath the likes of PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo.Assassin’s Creed,Far Cry,Splinter Cell,Ghost Recon, andRainbow Sixare all incredibly popular franchises, and Ubisoft owns them all. But the last few years haven’t been the best for Ubisoft, and the continuously delayedSkull and Bonescertainly isn’t helping matters.
Right now, Ubisoft is focused on new releases from both old and new IPs, and the infamous pirate gameSkull and Bonesis one release that Ubisoft’s been pushing for almost a decade now. But with yet another delay under its belt, it might be time to consider whether the ship has sailed onSkull and Bones.
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Interest in Skull and Bones Has Likely Died Down
Beginning development all the way back in 2013,Skull and Boneswas initially planned to be an MMO spin-off of the wildly successfulAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. For years, rumors circulated aroundUbisoft’s mysterious pirate game, but the gaming public wouldn’t find out anything concrete until E3 2017 whenSkull and Boneswas officially announced. In the years that have followed,Skull and Boneshas received no less than six lengthy delays, with Ubisoft promising big things for the game with each one. But it’s been six years sinceSkull and Boneswas first announced, and 10 since it first started development, so it’s starting to seem less and less likely that anyone will actually want to play it when it does eventually come out.
Skull and Boneshas already missed multiple boats. The first concept for the game, anMMO based onAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, would have probably been incredibly well received if it launched just a few years afterBlack Flag, a game that’s only become more beloved in the decade since its initial launch. But Ubisoft changed tack, and any hype that would have been found in that concept was snuffed out.
This trend continued withSkull and Bones' different potential settings. During development,Skull and Boneswent through several different iterations, most of which revolved around different time settings and locations. After theBlack FlagMMO was scrapped, along with its Caribbean setting in the process,Skull and Bonesadopted a new setting, the fantastical Hyperborea. This setting would revolve around Greek mythology, which is another unique concept that would have generated a lot of interest in the gaming public.
But now, 10 years later,Skull and Boneshas missed every chance it’s had to be genuinely unique. WhenSkull and Boneswas re-revealed back in July 2022, gamers drew immediate comparisons between its gameplay andSea of Thieves, with many considering the two games to be much too similar. In fact, some fans even deemedSkull and Bones' gameplay to be inferior toSea of Thieves’since it lacked any form of land combat. Despite that, some fans were still looking forward to playing a big open-world multiplayer pirate game, with that still being a relatively niche genre for the modern gaming market. But with this latest delay, potentially pushing the game out of 2023 altogether,Skull and Bonesmight have lost the last flicker of interest fans had in it. And while 2024’s release calendar hasn’t been filled out just yet, it seems likely thatSkull and Boneswon’t be on the top of many players' most anticipated games lists.
Skull and Bonesis in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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