Ubisoft is refocusing Skull & Bones development on multiplayer.
Mentioned two years ago by VGC sources, the new direction for Skull & Bones has been officially confirmed by French publisher Ubisoft: “This is a very promising new multiplayer-focused license that aligns with our strategy of focusing on competition and collaboration in a large open world that is not without a very compelling fantasy. Of course, development took a lot longer than we thought, but so far we’re happy with the art direction and progress of the game. ”
Introduced at E3 2017 as an open world set in the Indian Ocean near Azania and focused on exploration through a single-player campaign with craftable ships and a core character progression system (elements taken here and there from Assassin’s Creed III and Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag), Skull & Bones will now feature a persistent game world with quests, characters, and storylines that will evolve and drastically change over time based on the collective actions of the community. There should also be elements of survival (raft in the early game, gathering resources and building ships). The release may take place between April and March 2023.
Chaotic development of Skull & Bones
In 2020, Ubisoft Singapore Managing Director Hugues Ricourt was replaced following allegations of misconduct and left the studio, although he is still with the company but with a different subsidiary. Last year it was reported that Ubisoft Singapore was under investigation for allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Finally, at the beginning of the year, the co-director of Skull and Bones, namely Antoine Henri, left Ubisoft Singapore. He was primarily responsible for the multiplayer and social aspects of Skull & Bones.
Despite numerous delays and strategy changes, Ubisoft has full confidence in this new license. Note that Elizabeth Pellen is still in charge of the creative direction of a pirated game that wants to be a real competitor to Sea of Thieves, Microsoft’s latest Rare creation that has taken time to really hit its stride.