'We strongly believe in the team’s creative vision and they have been given an increasingly ambitious mandate for the game,' Over the past year, we’ve made significant changes to our policies and processes to create a safe and more inclusive workplace and empower our teams to create games that reflect the diversity of the world we live in.'ĭuring the Ubisoft 2020-21 earnings call, chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet had this to say about the game. That being said, any unfounded speculation about the game or decisions being made only works to demoralize the team who are working very hard to develop an ambitious new franchise that lives up to the expectations of our players. 'The Skull and Bones team are proud of the work they’ve accomplished on the project since their last update with production just passing Alpha, and are excited to share more details when the time is right. In response, Ubisoft put out a statement updating Kotaku on the game's progress and recent Alpha production milestone. Three different sources put the cost of Skull and Bones at more than $120 million, and it's not even finished yet.

The article, which included input from current and former developers on Skull and Bones, reveals constant changes to the game's direction - like switching between naval combat and survival as the core concepts - and culture clashes on the development team. In July 2021 a report from Kotaku (opens in new tab) offered insight into issues behind the scenes that have caused the development process to drag on so long. The co-director of the game, Antoine Henry, left Ubisoft after 15 years in January 2022, which many worried had to do with Skull and Bones' development issues. It seems like ship customization will be very broad, so expect to see a variety of different vessels on the horizon. Solo play will include leveling up your ship, taking on pirate emissions, and battling on the high seas. You can definitely play alone, but part of the risk in our world is that, if you are the lone wolf, you could potentially become prey for other players,' Barnard says. So, should you play it solo? 'We want players to have advantages when they group up and pirate together. According to Barnard, the current iteration of Skull and Bones is not a 'classic narrative-driven game' but a live game that Ubisoft is committed to working on far into the future.

Skull and Bones was initially billed as a game that would be made up of two main pillars: a single-player campaign where you play a fully customizable pirate and multiplayer 5v5 tactical naval combat. 'Since I joined, my focus has been about taking the creative vision to life.' His focus has been on adding 'depth to the naval combat,' the progression system, enemy factions, and crafting. 'The team developed their expertise in Naval Combat through their co-development work so we decided to capitalize on that to create a totally new world – the world of Skull and Bones,' Barnard says game director Ryan Barnard.

While working on our five key Skull and Bones questions answered, we spoke with game director Ryan Barnard, who gave us even more details beyond the July gameplay reveal. We know that Skull and Bones will focus heavily on naval combat thanks to its roots lying in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.

Skull and bones gameplay video