Skull and Bones is one of the unfortunate games in the well-known development hell. The game of pirates and ship battles have suffered more delays than any other Ubisoft project.
The game was born because of the ship battle system introduced in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag back in 2013. Skull and Bones was first announced at the E3 2017 Ubisoft Press Conference and was the first game by Ubisoft Singapore. The title is set to launch this February.
Skull and Bones and the cursed deadlines
Ubisoft’s game with pirates and ship combat is one of the many titles that never had serious management from a big company. Skull and Bones has suffered six delays in its launch. The game was announced back in 2017, with many trailers and closed betas, but with no idea of management whatsoever. All because of the unrealistic deadlines set by the people in charge, with teams being extremely crunched and stressed for games without a clear course. The game cost has also increased with every delay.
Skull and Bones is estimated to have cost more than $200 million dollars, despite all the changes and delays to the project. This game will never be profitable and will not bring its cost back in revenue. Unfortunately, this is not something that a major company is looking for, so it will be a doomed game from the start. Several members of the team behind Skull and Bones had talked about the ambition of managers to elevate their names.
This uncomfortable atmosphere left some developers without any clue of what to do on a day-to-day basis. To this is added the lack of direction that the game was receiving. Some former employees had said, “Some days I would just be sit there watching YouTube videos.” The project finally took form, but the deadlines keep getting unreal, creating more chaos and stress between the team.
Other games suffer from the same faith
Unfortunately, this is not the only game suffering from this kind of mismanagement. Beyond Good and Evil 2 has more than 15 years in development hell, with numerous attempts to show new gameplay and details but without any sign of being released soon, and Ubisoft has not posted news or details about the project. The other title is XDefiant, a first-person shooter free-to-play that has the team of Ubisoft San Francisco behind. This game had several layoffs and changes in mechanics in general. There is no news about its launch.
Skull and Bones is set to be released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X next month on February 16, after more than 7 years since its announcement.
The game had some closed beta without any mention of players being very interested in the project. A possible loss for Ubisoft.
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