Skull and Bones Delayed Again, Ubisoft Cancels Three Games

Skull and Bones Delayed Again, Ubisoft Cancels Three Games

Ubisoft has announced that Skull and Bones has been delayed again. The video game caught in a developmental hell has now been delayed for a sixth time. The latest financial update revealed the news along with the news of three unannounced games that have been canceled by the developer.

Ubisoft noted that it has aimed to create titles with longevity that can reach fans globally across all platforms while also focusing on its biggest franchises in the last four years such as Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Far Cry, and The Division.

The press release adds further:

“However, the games from this investment phase have yet to be released, while our recent launches have not performed as well as expected. Compounding this effect, in the context of worsening macroeconomic conditions, the trends over the Holiday season, in particular the last weeks of December and beginning of January, have been markedly and suprisingly slower than expected.

This overall context has triggered a full review of our revenue prospects leading to increased cautiosness over the coming years. Considering this, combined with the significant additional investments that resulted from lockdown and new working patterns that have a profound impact on productions across the industry over the past 3 years, Ubisoft is announcing today a set of measures dedicated to strengthening its long-term growth and value-creation prospects.” 

Truthfully, as much as I find Skull and Bones a very intriguing concept and even more when its from the developer that has brought us epic pirate ship warfare as we saw in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. The faith is diminishing in this project. I have the utmost respect for Ubisoft and fully hope that whatever the holdup may be this time around. They do note that they have seen improvements, saying:

“The additional time has already paid off and brought impressive improvements to its quality. We believe players will be positively surprised by its evolution. We have decided to postpone its release in order to have more time to showcase a much more polished and balanced experience and to build awareness.”

The question that remains is, is it too late to make this a game players will care about when it releases? I sure hope so and will be sailing toward anarchy when the game arrives. It’s important to note that too often, we see developers rush titles out even when unfinished, so credit should be given to Ubisoft for their determination to release a game they feel is ready for the public.

Source: Ubisoft