Ubisoft’s 6-year bet on the pirate game looks like a chore

Narrated test material for skull and bones leaked online, showing much of the blockbuster’s transformation since it was last officially shown at E3 2018. It’s pretty and also looks like a modern textbook Ubisoft game. Players collect blueprints, loot materials, and build their nefarious rank to get bigger and better ships. Raise and grind sailors.

That new leaked gameplay footage, which lasts just over six minutes, details how players make contracts for NPCs to level up and unlock new ship designs and upgrades. They fill their ships with “rations, water, repair kits and ammunition” before setting sail. If their ship is destroyed or their crew mutinies, they lose their rank and respawn elsewhere while other players have a chance to salvage their wreckage. tell sources kotaku it could finally come out in fall 2022.

When skull and bones was first introduced at E3 2017 and presented as a session-based shooter with a focus on PVP. The new test footage instead emphasizes resource management, showing how players harvest things like ore, wood, and animal skins, which can then be refined into other materials at the main social hub. “Crafting is an essential activity to advance as a notorious pirate,” says the narrator. Footage emphasizes that the game can be played solo, but Ubisoft recently described it as “Multiplayer first.” There’s even a robust “Vanity Shop” for cosmetics.

When kotaku reported last year, skull and bonesDevelopment was a mess characterized by a lack of clear direction, skyrocketing costs, and tons of attrition. Led by Ubisoft Singapore, the project began as an expansion for 2013 Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag before it evolved into half a dozen other types of games over the past decade.

Continue reading: The messy, stalled billing at an Assassin’s Creed co-developer

Despite persistent statements from Ubisoft leadership The game went well the delays and wear and tear continue, in addition to alleged tumult and misconduct in his main studio. skull and bones lost an associate game director In December. Other high profile designers and writers have also left recently. The game lost its newest producer just a few months ago.

According to two sources familiar with the game’s development, Ubisoft was hoping to launch it skull and bones already this spring. This date was later pushed back to summer and then to September. However, there is growing pressure to ship the game, which some sources say has cost Ubisoft over $200 million at the time, partly due to an existing deal with the Singapore government.

Ubisoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but it did confirms the leak in a tweet Friday teases an official forthcoming reveal of the newly launched project.

As a live service game skull and bones expected to continue growing and evolving after release. But former developers associated with the project kotaku have spoken are skeptical that it can deliver anything close to what the publisher or players are expecting at this point. A Reddit post where the footage was shared is full of comments simply asking Ubisoft to do another one Black flag instead of this.