Ubisoft Pirate Game Skull and Bones Gets Trial Version, Price Cut as Player Count Reportedly Plummets

I guess the new IP didn't work out. Time to make a sequel or remake with all the names, faces and mechanics people love!

Both SS and SB have been half price for a while.

While both looked bang average on release, had they released at £30-£35. They may have had more success, because there is more chance of people giving it a try.

Surprising absolutely no-one...

The government of Singapore is coming for ya thumbs Ubisoft

So much for that "tremendous response" that Ubisoft mentioned a few weeks ago.

This is nothing short of a catastrophy for poor Ol' Ubi.

What? Ubisoft's quadruple-A full price GaS title failed? Color me surprised 😮

Played the beta, it was so bare bones it felt half finished which is absurd considering how long it had been in development and that it had been spun off of a pre-existing game. The worst thing was it was just mind-numbingly boring, not even playing with friends could improve it.

Even if Ubisoft decided to give away S&B for 'free' - make it Free to Play for everyone, I would still have ZERO interest in playing this. I can say the same for Suicide Squad too...

It doesn't matter how cheap they make it from my perspective, it won't tempt me...

Correct me if im wrong but didnt ubisoft claim this was doing well? I knew they were full of it XD

Players weren't engaged by the idea of Skull&Bones to begin with, but Microsoft sunk it by giving us Sea of Thieves.

Dedicated live service games are a tremendous risk. Making good games and potential solid profit isn't enough for them, they're all searching for that golden goose. Business sense has to be at the core of it to make sure everything is sustainable, but I feel like the balance compared to the art form has never been further away.

@Danloaded they never did. The language they used screamed "spin". Just like MS when their hardware sales slowed down (I think it was around when xbone came out) and they were talking about number of bullets shot, enemies killed, etc.

The first AAAA game is also the first AAAA flop!

HD2 reporting big drop off too. Hope they turn that around because it's a blast. Concurrent was down around 60k from a Hugh off almost 500k. They gotta make these major orders easier to finish.

Best to go down with the ship.

@somnambulance "It’s not a great game, but it certainly deserves to be above Suicide Squad."

I disagree, Suicide Squad is clearly a garbage game but at least it has actual gameplay and it's cutscenes quality are 10/10 (graphically I mean). Skull and Bones was a game that looks like it was supposed to be scrapped but Ubisoft were forced to release it.

GASP Who could have seen this coming?

Ubisoft mostly running off other peoples ideas for the last decade. There is only so much they can milk AC and Far Cry before people get fed up. They already killed off Watch Dogs. There examples of true originality but in the last decade they are sparse.

@darylb24 Nothing about any From Soft game is original, not sure what that has to do with anything

I was pondering what open world crime themed games there were the other day, and apart from the obvious GTA, RDR, Mafia etc, next on the list was kind of Watch Dogs in recent years. Such a shame they ballsed that up and sunk a bunch of money into this trash as well.

Sigh. Ubisoft. Sigh.

Absolutely Astonishingly Amusing Arrogance

I will only support this game the day when it no longer depends on any online connections to play or even install.

Which means never.

It’s actually not that bad. Started playing this weekend and I’m enjoying it. The first hour or so was a bit rough but once you get to the main island hub and start figuring things out it’s pretty fun.

No thanks, I'll stick to Sea of Thieves

The fact they thought players wanted a pirate game where you just (more or less) stay in your ship to do all the activities is just baffling to me. Like... it's bonkers stupid.

They had the tools and the framework to make an EPIC pirate ARPG and spin off an entirely standalone IP with it. Put it in a region of the world like the South Pacific (which I think is where this is based?) or the Caribbean (which is where I think Black Flag was based) and make it a full third-person ARPG a la AC with violence and action ON FOOT. But then throw in a fully customizable ship AND an island fortress.

Have the player build up their base of operations while they loot and pillage dozens upon dozens of small island havens. Make it MASSIVELY large. Like AC Odyssey but all island-based. No huge land masses, necessarily. Have each island have a strategic purpose. And then spin out resource/control mechanics almost like that old Scarface game. Let the player build a friggin' piracy-based empire and become lords of the sea.

It coulda been friggin' WILDLY cool. But we got... this. Ugh.

Aquatic Adventure Awkwardly Acquiesces

Player count is not plummething. I can verify that because it has been consistently around 50 concurrent players worldwide ever since I accidentally bought the game confusing it with AC4 Black Flag.

@MrMeeeseeeks Sea of Thieves has way more depth then S&B does and Ubi made a "smart" Pirate game a decade ago its called AC4: Black Flag and it does everything this game does but better and it also you know has ground combat, actual exploration and tons of other things.

@Gamer_X
Totally agree. I do not buy live service games. Even if you own the disc version all ubi has to do is pull the plug on the server and your game is worthless. I was looking forward to this as another black flag but once I heard that it was live service, that finished it for me.

Yeah, pass. Would rather try out Sea of Thieves or play AC Black Flag.

I heard that in Singapore you can be jailed if you throw a paper on the ground. So failing their AAAA game, it's like starting a war.

Thing was DOA from start. Only continued because they were legally obligated to release it. Even watching some people play it, it looks like the most boring thing ever. Heck even the one streamer was asking his buddy when can they stop this and move on constantly

I might check it out if they remove the multiplayer components, add a compelling narrative and characters.

Oh man, AAAA gaming is off to a bad start. Even on psnprofiles i had to travel a bit to find it, currently sitting at 438th place with 83 players, sheesh! As a comparison, while scrolling i saw other ubi games like Avatar, Crew Motorfest, AC mirage even Uno was higher. Currently SS KTJL is sitting at 142nd.

On a positive note, Xdefiant is at number 1 for them

@Buck51 Wish more people would share the same sentiment on the matter but sadly most gamers nowadays don't care about gaming preservation.

They could have made a story from the start with the (optional) multiplayer baked in from the start i dont get happy when stuff fails.

@Buck51 Same here im staying away from their games from now on.

if i want politics, i'll watch the news for free.

@MFTWrecks You are so right. You should have helped them

I feel that we are about to see another round of layoffs. It’s not fun to watch, but the industry is heading for a big correction. A constant flow of massive titles is not good because it waters down the experience as a whole. Too much of a good thing for too few paying customers, which means that the company will have less opportunity to make a profit. I am at the point where I may see a game that looks incredible, but I am so buried in other titles that I may never get around to it.