HomeNewsSkull and Bones
Skull And Bones is Ubisoft’s “biggest open world” and cutting the campaign was vital, says former creative directorUbisoft staff shed light on over 10 years of development difficulties
Ubisoft staff shed light on over 10 years of development difficulties
Image credit:Ubisoft
Image credit:Ubisoft
Ubisoft Singapore’s piracy simSkull And Bonesstarted development in 2013, and during the subsequent decade-and-change it has seemingly collided with every possible reef in the ocean of videogame production, undergoing a series of delays, reboots and staff departures. Perhaps it will take you the same amount of time to sail across it: this is Ubisoft’s “biggestopen world” offering, in the words of former creative director Elisabeth Pellen.
Skull And Bones wasannounced at E3 2017. At the time, Ubisoft described it as mixture of narrative campaign and online “shared world” a la Destiny, with seasonal content drops and multiplayer modes including the 5v5 Loot Hunt. Ubisoft also showed the game off at E3 2018 with a slice of open worldy co-op sailing. But then camedelayafterdelay.
Pellen herself was brought on after previous creative director Justin Farren left the project in 2018. A long-serving Ubisofter and vice president of the company’s editorial team, her job was to right the ship and “turn the most promising prototypes and demos into a fuller game experience”. This became a process of paring away big chunks of the Skull And Bones concept with a view to focussing the team’s resources.
How big is biggest, here? Well, back in 2022 game director Ryan BarnarddescribedSkull And Bones as 625 square kilometres in size, next to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s 95 square kilometres. I don’t know how much of that is still true. It’s a deceptive comparison, of course, because you do not rove around Valhalla in a bloody great galleon, but still, that’s a lot of blue water. Whether the game earns its scale is another question - there are plenty of open worlds out there that could do with a haircut.
All going to plan, we’ll be able to ply these waves andfinallysee what all the fuss is about in just over a week -Skull And Bones launches on February 16th, 2024.
