Ubisoft’s “biggest fail”: why are fans doubting Skull and Bones from a famous Canadian studio
WHAT IS SKULL AND BONES
Skull and Bones is an upcoming game with a PEGI rating of M - a rating meaning ‘mature’ - published by Ubisoft, the publishers of another pirate game, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. It is coming to both the PS5 and Xbox One platforms, and is set to release on February 16th, 2024.
It is a pirate game: therefore, self-evidently, the gameplay involves pirating - owning a pirate ship, sailing said pirate ship, and fighting, looting and plundering in order to complete dangerous missions - and whether you own a PS5 or an Xbox One, you’ll be able to complete said missions with your friends because this game has crossplay, meaning everyone on all the platforms can play together.
You’ll be able to form your own fleet of ships, replete with weapons - cannons, for example, including broadside cannons and chase cannons - and utilise those weapons to destroy your enemies and their crew, causing their ships to shatter.
Pirate Dens are the hub areas, and at these so-called Pirate Dens are the locations at which you’ll disembark, decompress and, in ensuring you have plenty of provisions, prepare for your next adventure. You’ll go on different contracts, and complete them with your crew in tow.
You’ll look for loot in the multiplayer mode, Loot Hunt.There are three different ship types, and the three different shiptypes have different strengths - one is better for fighting, whilst another is better for storing, and the third is better at navigating.
It is a game whose world is to be inspired by the Indian Ocean, and one need only google ‘Indian Ocean’ to see why they deemed this location an appropriate place to set their game. Will you go down in infamy as a fearsome pirate
WHY THE DOUBTS
Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones was initially set to release in the second half of 2018. Now, in 2024, it’s finally coming out, which represents a delay - relative to its initial release window - of around six years.
Any film fan knows that multiple delays - and there have been many delays - rarely bode well for a product’s success, especially in today’s environment, where games like No Man’s Sky and, relevantly, Sea Of Thieves have received post-launch support, and have won the love of the fans in the same way, even though old reviews of said games have some amount of infamy: some critiques that exist of the old versions prove how large of a gap there is between the games then and now.
That is to say, speaking cynically, one can, should one choose to do so, make money off pre-orders, and then use that money to improve the game post-launch, retroactively regaining the consumers’ trust.
Therefore, for a product to be delayed, games might assume something is seriously wrong and, according to a Kotaku report, the game has undergone somewhat fundamental changes since its initial release window was missed, and is evidenced by what players of the Skull and Bones beta have said.
What’s more, in order to assess whether or not a company is likely to be successfully in creating a multiplayer game, one ought to check whether or not the company has a substantial history creating multiplayer games, and the fact of the matter is that Ubisoft Singapore has, generally, only assisted on some of the biggest games that Ubisoft has released, many of which have been predominantly single-player anyway: making your first major release you’re leading a multiplayer game seem risky, given that multiplayer games are way harder to develop than single-player ones.
Furthermore, some people have doubts arising as a byproduct of the trailers: what they perceive to be low-quality gameplay, or, at least, what it hints at with respect to changes made across the game’s timeline.
One reddit channel user thinks, "There have been too many pirated games lately. And the presence of competitors makes the existence of this game somewhat arbitrary: its up to Ubisoft SIngapore to do well and prove why this game should exist, and in such a saturated market, even innovation may not be enough."
Some gamers who have doubts about the game have expressed a sense of confusion as to why Skull and Bones isn’t being made to more closely resemble Black Flag, making the argument that the game is made by the same people.
And they are half-right: the game is being made by the same company; however, it is not being produced by the same subsidiary: Ubisoft Singapore is leading the development of Skull and Bones, whereas it was Ubisoft Montreal that took the lead in developing the Assassin’s Creed series.
Dmitry Rogalchuk - Head of Content at CasinoCanada.com - explains: “People had wanted Skull and Bones to be a lot like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but they’d forgotten the fact that a totally different subsidiary was responsible for leading that game. It’s one of the issues with releasing everything under the Ubisoft umbrella: that brand comes with expectations, and that can be great sometimes, but, sometimes, those expectations can be baggage.”
“There are plenty of reasons to be sceptical. Even so, I still have high hopes for this new release. Everyone loved Black Flag - understandably so - but, if they can disavow themselves of those aforementioned expectations, they might end up having loads of fun with this new game. But I guess we’ll see.”
REASONS TO BE EXCITED ABOUT THE GAME
Ever since the success of Pirates Of The Carribean, pirates have been a massive part of the cultural zeitgeist. That being said, you can look at something like Robinson Crusoe’s Treasure Island to see how long sailing the Seven Seas has been seen as being synonymous with adventure.
So, even though some people consider there to be too many pirate games, Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones is certain to be emotionally exciting, even if for the mere fact that it taps into something intrinsically adventurous: pirating.
The fantasy of games set at sea is similar to games set in space: vast, open spaces in which suspenseful combat can occur, alongside a massive world. Tempestuous weather - winds, thunder, and heavy rain - has always been visually striking, but can detract from the realism if, for example, set to work in a city.
At sea, however, these visually-appealing conditions are more suitable - wild weather is a feature of seafaring - and undulating waves and wild winds evoke the same dizzying adrenaline rush that combat brings: it’s amazingly metaphorical, and, as a result, combat at sea, when done well, works wonders for inducing in the gamer a feeling of panicked excitement.
And, when you watch the trailer most recently released by Ubisoft, you cannot help but feel a degree of excitement: the light blue of the sea juxtaposed against the bright orange of exploding ships, which look beautiful together, as is explained by the fact of the two being complementary colors, alongside the visceral excitement of fighting as a fleet with your friends. It’s amazingly suspenseful, and some people, for their part, love the trailer.
Some gamers have taken the delays as a cause for concern. However, there’s something brave about delaying a game so many times: apparently, a lot of the reason No Man’s Sky released as early as it did was because Sony pushed for it: contracts can create obligations. The fact that Ubisoft refused to release the game until it was ready is, in a certain sense, admirable, and might itself bode well.
Now, it’s true: the Skull and Bones beta - the latest one, which lasted only six hours - has had somewhat mixed reactions. That being said, six hours clearly isn’t enough to establish a routine within a game, and, for a lot of people, the download time itself ate into some of the time that they had to play it.
With the Skull and Bones release date just around the corner, Ubisoft certainly have the resources to both fund and create an incredible pirate game; here’s hoping that they utilise said resources to their full potential.
The Gamble That One Hopes Will Pay Off
Rogalchuk - whose company is no stranger to the pressures of creating new additions to Canadian gaming world - went on to talk about the curiously and how it ties in to his company:
“From Ubisoft’s use of loot boxes - for which they have received some flak - to the sense in which critical response to their games is so unpredictable, there is something roulette-like about being a fan of Ubisoft. Even frequent casino players sometimes try to invest 5$ deposit casino and see if luck will smile, if yes, they continue and win a lot of money. Its the same for the participants of the game, they try it first, and then they make an overall impression. Especially pre-ordering with them: it can sometimes feel like you’ve put all your money on black, but wondering if red was right. But that’s why people use casinos. It’s because of the power of hope.”
And gamers across the world do have a sense of hope for this game, as evidenced by their interactions with the marketing materials: often, games people know will be subpar get ignored. The people railing on this game aren’t necessarily absent of hope: some of them are likely hopeful gamers in denial; gamers who want, more than anything, to be proven wrong; gamers who want their concerns to be heard, and to see certain changes made to make this pirate game a game they can fall fully in love with.
Should You Buy Skull and Bones
Whether or not this is the right game for you largely depends on whether or not pirate games emotionally resonate with you. You can perform a close critique of the game’s systems, and a detailed analysis of its story, but the fact of the matter is that, even if these things were flawed, for some, they don’t care: for them, the fantasy of pirating is itself sufficiently magical that this game is, by virtue of the fact of it being a pirate game, a “must-buy”.
Of course, Ubisoft have created a Premium Edition, and it entitles you to start playing three days earlier than you would normally be able to. So, if you know you’ll love this game, that is probably the best way to experience it: with the extra content the Premium Edition brings, alongside the benefit of being able to begin early.
We won’t receive a Skull and Bones review for a while but, for some of you, it would definitely be worth waiting upon a Skull and Bones review: if you’re not chomping at the bit to play a pirate game, and Ubisoft don’t tend to do it for you, there isn’t necessarily much reason to assume this game would be exempt from your reaction.
But feel free to watch the trailer for yourself, and make your own determinations. If you’re not into pirating, the game might seem really repetitive, but how much variety within gameplay there will be can only truly be ascertained after spending hours within the game.
For Ubisoft, Skull and Bones might be their next huge hit. Or, it might sink. We’ll find out how everyone finds the game on February 16th 2024.
