For a long time, Skull and Bones was considered a ghost ship – a pirate game from Ubisoft that would never make it to port. After six public delays, it is one of the most postponed games of all time. The complete silence surrounding it for years made people believe that it was either permanently anchored in the port of development or already sunk to the bottom of the ocean. But inside the halls of Ubisoft in Singapore, hundreds of developers weathered the storm of design problems in pursuit of their white whale. Now, almost seven years since its first presentation, Skull and Bones is ready to set sail. However, this final version is significantly different from the game we first saw in 2017. Throughout its development journey, the game went through several different forms, and the final project emerged after a major reboot, lengthening the game creation process and leaving a few prototypes at the bottom of the ocean. Here is the story behind Skull and Bones’ many delays and challenges that caused them.
In Skull and Bones, the Indian Ocean becomes your playground. You freely explore its open world, hunt for food and materials needed for survival in the golden age of piracy. You can take on missions that build your reputation and lead you to the ultimate goal of becoming a cunning pirate boss. The game’s story is minimalistic, promoting your own adventures and stories of other players sailing the same online waters. But Skull and Bones wasn’t always this survival game with an open world. In fact, Skull and Bones went through many different projects – or at least game ideas – before transforming into what it is today.
Our story begins in 2017 when Ubisoft unveiled a brand new pirate game at their annual E3 conference. The presentation was led by creative director Justin Farren, a member of Ubisoft Singapore and an experienced producer of Assassin’s Creed who worked on Black Flag. On stage, Farren explained that “Skull and Bones is a shared systemic world where you can sail by yourself or form a pirate gang with your friends and terrorize the trade routes of the Indian Ocean.” But this shared world was not what Ubisoft showed in the gameplay presentation. The on-stage presentation showcased a 5v5 multiplayer mode called “Loot Hunt,” which seemed more like a naval version of shooter races such as Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch rather than the maritime MMO Farren described. But Ubisoft assured that Skull and Bones would be bigger than what we saw; it would have a shared world, seasonal content, and a story campaign that would impact the multiplayer experience. All this was supposed to be released in the fall of 2018.
A year later, a few weeks before E3 2018, the release of Skull and Bones was pushed back to “at least 2019.” Despite the delay, it was still part of Ubisoft’s E3 conference, and it looked completely different than in 2017. Instead of the 5v5 multiplayer mode, the new presentation showcased a cooperative game where players joined forces to defeat a mighty enemy warship. Was this the shared world promised the previous year? Had Skull and Bones transformed into a completely different game?
“We wanted to create the biggest pirate and naval game in an open world that we could possibly make,” says Kris Kirkpatrick, the lead art director at Ubisoft Singapore and a longtime veteran of Skull and Bones. “We thought we had something great. It felt great. It looked great. But why not offer more?” As E3 2018 came to a close, few people suspected that they would have to wait another four years for more Skull and Bones information. The following year, the game was delayed again to “after March 2020,” and Ubisoft’s E3 conference in 2019 went by without a single screenshot. A few months later, another delay was announced. In 2020, Ubisoft revealed that the studio had found a “new vision,” leading to yet another delay. With each passing year and delay, not a single new piece of information was seen about Skull and Bones.
In July 2021, the long silence was broken but not by Ubisoft. A damaging report by Kotaku painted a picture of a studio in chaos. It claimed that Skull and Bones had three different creative directors over eight years, each working off different documents, which meant that many concepts – including an Assassin’s Creed spin-off and modes seen at E3 – were discarded in favor of building different projects. Anonymous interviews with current and former programmers suggested that the project was poorly managed and lacking direction. It was a report that raised dozens of questions, but the biggest one was the simplest: what the hell was going on inside Ubisoft Singapore?
In the video game industry, there is nothing more challenging than building a new brand. Ubisoft Singapore was established in 2008 as a small support studio. Over the years, it grew from a few individuals to a few hundred employees, working on series like Prince of Persia and Ghost Recon. However, their most famous creation was the naval combat in Assassin’s Creed 3, which served as the foundation for AC4: Black Flag. With this success, the Singapore team saw a new and exciting future. They wanted to be more than just a support studio. They wanted to take naval combat to the next level and create their own game. But creating a perfect game is not an easy task, especially when you’re a first-time lead developer. “There is nothing more challenging than building a new brand in the video game industry,” says Darryl Long, managing director of Ubisoft Singapore.
FAQ section based on the main topics and information presented in the article:
Question 1: When did the production of the game Skull and Bones start?
Answer: The production of the game Skull and Bones started in 2017.
Question 2: What delays affected the game’s release date?
Answer: The game was delayed multiple times, maintaining silence around it for many years. The delays resulted in a lengthened game development process.
Question 3: What are the main features of the game Skull and Bones?
Answer: Skull and Bones is a pirate game where players can explore the open world of the Indian Ocean, hunt for food and materials, take on missions, and build their ragtag crew. The story is minimalistic, and the game focuses on player adventures and interactions with other players online.
Question 4: How was the presentation of the game Skull and Bones at E3?
Answer: At E3 2017, the game was presented as a 5v5 multiplayer game called “Loot Hunt.” However, in the following presentation at E3 2018, the game was showcased as a cooperative game.
The source of the article is from the blog guambia.com.uy