There were big promises from Ubisoft in advance of the live service pirate game Skull and Bones. Mind you, this was ten years in development and was postponed six times. Ubisoft's CEO even spoke of the first “AAAA” game and justified the full price of at least 70 euros with the size of Skull and Bones. The pirate game has now been on the market for a month and an initial assessment can be made.
The statistics don't speak for Ubisoft
Skull and Bones compares quite well with Warner's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which is also considered a “big” AAA live service game. The action title is currently on the decline in terms of player numbers, despite largely positive sentiment on Steam. Skull and Bones is currently not available on Steam, but the statistics of the console versions reveal where the “AAAA” title is headed.
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Skull and Bones | PREVIEW | Maiden voyage with anchor dropped
Skull and Bones is not listed among the “Top 10 games in your country” in the Playstation Store, nor is there a trace among the 49 most played Xbox titles. According to Forbes, Skull and Bones was only briefly in the top 10 Playstation games and quickly left it. Suicide Squad, on the other hand, debuted at number 1 and then only slowly fell.
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Those responsible have also published the Playstation Store download charts from last month on the Playstation Blog. Here too, Skull and Bones lags behind expectations rather than living up to them. The pirate game took 7th place (EU) and 8th place (North America) in the Playstation download charts in February, while Suicide Squad even claimed third place in the USA and Canada.
Ubisoft currently only knows what the sales and player numbers for the PC version look like, as there are no Steam statistics available. However, based on Metacritic data, it is clear that Skull and Bones got off to a miserable start. The gaming press only gives an average of 60 out of 100 points, while the user score is only 3.5 points. In addition, price reductions were observed at retailers offering Skull and Bones just a few weeks after release.
Quelle: Sony (1), (2), Microsoft, via Forbes