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Ubisoft has rebooted Skull & Bones

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

According to development sources speaking under the condition of anonymity, Skull & Bones had been struggling to carve itself a unique position among Ubisoft’s existing portfolio of open-world games, which also includes Assassin’s Creed, The Division and Watch Dogs, which led to a succession of delays as Singapore attempted to refine its concept.

Last year the decision was made to reboot the game entirely and move away from the premium box model of Ubisoft’s other open-world games, sources said.

VGC was told the new Skull & Bones has moved towards a ‘live’ game model. The game will now feature a persistent game world with quests, characters and storylines that will drastically evolve and change over time based on the collective actions of the community.

This is unlike GaaS titles like The Division 2, which receive regular updates, but relatively static worlds, stories and content.

One person with knowledge of its development said that the social and “live storytelling” elements of Epic‘s Fortnite had been a strong inspiration for Skull & Bones’ new direction. They said the rebooted Skull & Bones would have a stronger focus on collaboration, as Ubisoft is keen to appeal to audiences beyond the competitive action fans who usually play its other series.

The reboot also brought big changes to the game’s leadership, including the departure of creative director Justin Farren, who later joined Wargaming.

As part of the reboot, Skull & Bones’ creative director was replaced by former editorial VP Elisabeth Pellen, VGC understands.

Pellen is a 20-year Ubisoft veteran who most notably wrote and directed 2003 shooter XIII and led level design for Splinter Cell’s first sequel, Pandora Tomorrow.

The respected creative spent the past decade working inside Ubisoft’s influential Editorial Team, where she was involved in dozens of titles across the Assassin’s Creed, Trials and Far Cry franchises.

Skull & Bones hasn’t updated its Twitter account for more than a year, when it promised fans it was “batten[ing] down the hatches” to focus on making the game “as awesome as it can be.” Following that post, the game was delayed again in a financial call.

Commenting on the game’s most recent delay in October 2019, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said it was “a very big product for us” with “huge potential” and that the company wanted to make sure it released “at a level that will surprise and please all gamers for the long term”.

Ubisoft declined to comment on this story.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
You buried the lead OP...

"One person with knowledge of its development said that the social and “live storytelling” elements of Epic‘s Fortnite had been a strong inspiration for Skull & Bones’ new direction. They said the rebooted Skull & Bones would have a stronger focus on collaboration, as Ubisoft is keen to appeal to audiences beyond the competitive action fans who usually play its other series."

Inspired by Fortnite. Bigger focus on cooperation.

This game just got interesting.
 

DCDW

Member
Was this the ship combat mode exported from the Assassin's Creed series? Sounds like the scope of the game is being increased by quite a bit.
 

GreenAlien

Member
They haven't figured out how to make boats climb towers yet.

Take some inspiration from One Piece, Ubi!

iu
 

The Fartist

Gold Member
When I first heard this game was being developed, I thought it was gonna be about the Skull & Bones secret society. Not sure how you make a game out of that but, Manhunt, Bully era Rockstar probably would've made it work.

I'm so off topic now.

52f36e386da8119371157012
 
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Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Skull & Bones had been struggling to carve itself a unique position among Ubisoft’s existing portfolio of open-world games
Hmm, I wonder why is that.... oh wait, right, it's just ship combat from previous AC games turned into a "game", how "original and unique".
 

Greeno

Member
I expected many things from this game when it was delayed mutliple times. A live model is not one of them.

I expected this:

* you play as a pre-defined character

* you can discover tribals that can kidnap you or be allies with you (something similar to that PotC2's Jack Sparrow's introduction)

* fully realized pirate democracy on the ships

* explore islands to find treasure with an Uncharted 4 like detailed manner

* dynamic safe havens that you can help build up

* expand on the ship battles system from Black Flags by incorprating the democratic ways of the pirates at the end of the plunder

* Authorities can send people to track you down if you cause too much trouble

* You can create a fleet

* etc

I wanted a fully realized single player pirate game.
 
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Reallink

Member
The ship battles in Blackflag grew tiring even as a side event, I don't know how you make an entire game off that. Apparently Ubisoft didn't either.
 

dyergram

Member
I hope they make the graphics interesting and not a rip off of fortnight. Cell shaded would be cool for a pirate game ubi doesn’t have the balls for that though.
 

Hudo

Member
For fucks sake, can't they just make a good ship-battle game? Like some sort of Sid Meier's Pirates! on steroids. Maybe, in the late game, you could manage your own fleet or something. And/or get your own island. Why does every game have to be some sort of '10-year service'?
 
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