So we have the answer to the question about the class of Skull and Bones – Ubisoft’s long-suffering pirate action game, which was delayed for almost 7 years.
Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot explained why Skull and Bones costs exactly that much ($70) – the corresponding question was asked during a conference call with investors to discuss the quarterly report. In particular, one of the accredited participants asked why Ubisoft decided to sell the game for $70, and did not choose a shareware distribution model, taking into account the background of the project (Yves Guillemot described this in more detail here). To this, Yves Guillemot replied that Skull and Bones is a full-fledged and very large-scale game, so this price is completely justified. Well, the $200 million that we spent on development over 10+ years won’t pay for itself.
*You will see that Skull and Bones is a complete game. This is a very big game, and we’re sure people will see for themselves how big the game is. This is truly a complete, AAA… AAAA game that will perform well in the long run.”
Yves Guillaume,
CEO of Ubisoft
You can remember that for the first time Ubisoft counted Skull and Bones as an AAAA-class game back in 2020 – along with the no less problematic Beyond Good & Evil 2, it was announced back in 2008, it is still in production hell and it is unknown when it will be released .
Skull and Bones will be released on February 16 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S – yesterday a three-day open beta testing started on all platforms (not without problems at the start), which will last until February 11 inclusive. Anyone can take part in it (you only need an account in Ubisoft Connect): two regions are available for exploration (the coast of Africa and East India), and you can upgrade your character to the sixth level of the first rank. Players will be able to transfer all progress to the full version of the game after release. Also, for participation in testing they promise various cosmetics, emotions, pets, weapons and other bonuses.
Future releases and financial success
In the report, Ubisoft confirmed the release dates of several future projects: the large-scale open-world action game Star Wars Outlaws, which is being developed by Massive Entertainment, will be released before the end of 2024, and Assassin’s Creed (Codename Red) in the setting of feudal Japan – between April 2024 and March 2025, and The Division Resurgence and Rainbow Six Mobile – already in the 2025 financial year (April 2025-March 2026). Ubisoft promises to reveal more details about future games in May 2024.
As for the financial “successes” of Ubisoft, according to the results of the third quarter of the 2024 financial year, which ended on December 31, the company earned 626.2 million euros – 13.8% less than the same period last year, but slightly higher than the predicted 610 million euros. The result for 9 months amounts to 1.448 billion euros – 1.6% higher than in the same period of the previous year. These financial figures are largely due to the success of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, The Crew Motorfest and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (exact sales figures were not reported). At the same time, sales of Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR did not live up to expectations – Ubisoft only sparingly called them “normal” and reported no plans to increase investments in the VR direction.