Ubisoft’s highly anticipated pirate-themed video game, Skull and Bones, has officially launched after years of production delays. It is the first major game by Ubisoft Singapore and will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. As per a report by CNBC, Jean-Francois Vallee, managing director of Ubisoft Singapore, stated,
It’s the first time that this type of game was led by a Singaporean or Southeast Asian studio, so the atmosphere around achieving it has been great.
The game, launched on February 16, has garnered unusual attention and received mixed reviews from critics. It features pirates as its main theme and allows players to embark on a pirate journey. It can be played solo or with friends. The game began development in 2013, initially as an Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag expansion. It was later turned into an MMO spinoff and then into an independent game. Notably, it faced an endless number of challenges and delays and would have disappeared if the company had not received subsidies from the Singaporean government.
The government of Singapore has taken significant measures to boost the country’s gaming industry. Ubisoft Singapore was granted funds from the Economic Development Board in 2016 to develop an AAA game and release original IPs soon. AAA games are titles that are developed and distributed by giant and renowned game publishers. In addition, they have huge budgets for the development and marketing of the game.
Despite the large budget and efforts used to build this game, it has received mixed reviews so far. Game review website Metacritic mentions the critic rating to be 60 out of 100 and “generally unfavorable” as per the hundreds of user ratings. However, Jean-Francois Vallee said that he was happy with the players’ response to the game. He said that millions of people have signed up to play the open beta version of Skull and Bones for free. The standard version of the game costs $60 and has additional features and updates. Reportedly, the development budget of the game was $200 million, and the project has not lived up to users’ expectations.
