The state of Ubisoft’s scuttled pirate game Skull & Bones has been explained in its Q3 financial call. The game is still slated for FY2023 and will resurface as a multiplayer-only title. VGC transcribed the financial call discussing the long-troubled Skull & Bones. The pirate game was initially revealed in 2017 as a combined single-player and multiplayer experience, with five years of development time already spent on the project. Ubisoft CFO Frédérick Duguet has now updated us on the project five years later. “It’s a very promising new IP focussing on multiplayer first, so very consistent with our strategy to bring multiplayer competition and co-op first in a big open world, with a great, attractive fantasy,” Duguet stated on the call. “That’s of course a longer development time that we’ve had on that game, but we’re very happy with the artistic direction and the progress of the game so far.” This reverses the development direction initially revealed and confirms the title will be targeting the live-service multiplayer format. In a separate document aiding the financial call, a few more specifics about Skull & Bones’ place in the Ubisoft timeline are given. “In line with Ubisoft’s commitment to significantly expand its offering, the next fiscal year will notably include the releases of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Skull & Bones as well as more exciting games.” That means that Ubisoft believes that the game will release before April 2023, which would be quite a surprise. One of the reasons we’ll see Skull & Bones launch in 2023 is down to Ubisoft Singapore heading up development. To qualify for the “generous subsidies” for game development in Singapore, you have to produce one new IP within a certain amount of years in development (as per the sensational Kotaku report from last year). However, with constant chopping and changing of the plan for Skull & Bones as well as alleged workplace malpractice, it seems the development team has been in crisis mode for a long time. It is important to note, then, that in the financial call supplement it is revealed that “The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) in Singapore completed its investigation into the Ubisoft Singapore studio and concluded that the studio has a structured system in place to handle any workplace misconduct reports, that past reports were handled appropriately and that salaries are performance-based.” That suggests that Ubisoft is trying to let investors know that project development is full-sail ahead with no extraneous issues, as per its 2020 announcement.In late 2021, leaker Tom Henderson posted a Twitter thread in which he detailed a few of the features he had allegedly heard about. While you should take some sea salt on this journey, it sounds like there will be different classes of ships. Each will make a unique impact and you will have to build some of them from scratch, with you starting out on a little raft — you little castaway bilge, you. Apparently, the game is set in the “Indian Ocean with the fictional pirate haven being based on Madagascar.” I would like to point out that the pirate haven was not that fictional, though I suppose Ubisoft could make a fictional one in its place. In reality, Captain Avery & Co would make cheeky use of Madagascar to set sail into the Indian Ocean after making repairs and modifications to their boats. Avery would make a killing in July 1695 after attacking a Grand Mughal on his way to Mecca via the Indian Ocean, so one imagines Madagascar and its population saw quite a bit of that wealth coming through, too. In fairness, after Mr Avery died/disappeared, Madagascar also became the epicentre of many myths of a pirate colony with an alleged abundance of wealth. In reality, the African island would become a staging post for the East India Company ships when heading to the spice islands (modern South-East Asia). Maybe the Skull & Bones achievements will make one day make use of these strange adventures? Sorry, that was a long tangent. What do you think about this news? Are you excited about Skull & Bones? Do you have a favourite pirate? Nassau vs Madagascar? Let us know in the comments, you dirty rascals.
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