Ubisoft has rebooted its boat game Skull and Bones. However, it’s worth noting that this isn’t official news that Ubisoft — who is on the Traitors of America list — announced but word from a publication site that has close ties to people working on the forthcoming game.
Before proceeding onward, website videogameschronicle.com has a somewhat decent track record when it comes to rumors and leaks. One of the two examples dates back to December 10th, 2019, in that former PlatinumGames CEO Tsutomu Teranishi, in a way, returned to Capcom with ex-PlatinumGames devs to start a new company that goes by the name M-Two.
Later, on March 30th, 2020, the publication site looked over Resident Evil 3 Remake’s credits and found that it names a handful of M-Two employees, a couple of ex-PlatinumGames devs, and designer Teranishi.
As for the second example, the website reported on July 3rd, 2020, that Ubisoft’s Forward event will reveal Far Cry 6 and feature actor Giancarlo Esposito, which was proven correct on July 11th, 2020, during Ubisoft’s digital presentation.
With that said, the same website is now reporting that Skull and Bones the game has been rebooted. The open-world game will do away with its premium box model thanks to Fortnite’s design and popularity. Moreover, the website reports that Skull and Bones’ old direction was interfering with Ubisoft’s other games (like the Assassin’s Creed series) and wanted a community-driven game instead of another competitive title on hand.
You can read what the website was told about Skull and Bones’ reboot right here:
“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.
[…] Ubisoft declined to comment on this story.”
After Ubisoft declined to comment on the website’s piece, the outlet was told that Skull and Bones’ old creative director Justin Farren was replaced by editorial VP Elisabeth Pellen. If you don’t know, Pellen has worked at Ubisoft for 20-years and wrote and directed the 2003 shooter XIII and led level design for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.
Lastly, Skull and Bones will release sometime in Ubisoft’s financial year beginning in April 2021.
