Ubisoft Says Skull And Bones Is A “Quadruple-A” Game; Defends Its $70 Price

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has backed the $70 price tag of Skull and Bones, saying that the upcoming title is a “quadruple-A” game. During Ubisoft’s conference call for the Q3 financial report, Guillemot addressed the live-service approach the game is taking while answering a question about the price tag. The CEO said the title is huge and vast, making it more than triple-A.

You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game. It’s a very big game, and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. It’s a really full, triple … quadruple-A game, that will deliver in the long run.”

Hence, even though it’s a live service game with a battle pass, in-game store, and seasonal events, the Ubisoft title will retail for a premium $70 price. Originally Skull and Bones was meant to be an open-world action game set in the Indian Ocean with a single-player campaign with a PvP mode also present. However, it was revealed in 2020 that the game had a “new vision” with its release delayed to FY2022 from March 2020.

According to a Kotaku report from 2021, Skull and Bones went through development hell with the game’s direction changing multiple times during production. Initially, the gameplay focused on naval exploration but after multiple redesigns, a land-based approach was favored with the title becoming “multiplayer-first.” Furthermore, the production faced management issues, budget problems, and several delays in release.

Now, the game is finally set to launch after Ubisoft revealed the final release date at the 2023 Game Awards. An Open Beta for the game also launched on February 8, 2024, on all platforms with PC players able to access it via Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store. Therefore it seems like Skull and Bones is going to launch after all on February 16, 2024, for PC, Amazon Luna, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.