Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has shared a much needed update to their upcoming piracy themed video game, Skull and Bones.
In a recent financial call, Yves stated that Ubisoft Singapore “continues to make really good progress” on the game. As reported by Techraptor, the closed beta is going forward on August 25, 2023, and will go on for three days.
CFO Frederick Duguet also chimed to say that he had seen good progress in internal testing for Skull and Bones.
Skull and Bones had been the subject of a lot of negative coverage in the past few years, as Ubisoft missed deadlines and planned release dates.
However, all that bad press for the game and Ubisoft in general may have misled us to how well the company was going. A little over a month ago, Ubisoft came out with a new Sea Shanty Song trailer, and showing off how Skull and Bones looked at this point in time.
That trailer came with an announcement that Ubisoft actually had a public beta planned for it. This is a clear indication that the studio had not given up on the project at all.
Later, Ubisoft removed consoles as platforms that could participate in the beta, meaning you had to be on PC and running Ubisoft Connect to get to play it at all.
To be clear, that piece of news isn’t necessarily proof of more development issues or another delay. Game companies may find it necessary to set limits on how much the public sees of unfinished games. They do have to strike quite a delicate balance, between getting the data they need to make the game as best as possible, and not giving gamers a negative perception for the game when it’s still in progress.
The real point of concern is how well Ubisoft is meeting the terms of their agreement with the Singaporean government in regards to Ubisoft Singapore. While this hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, the city of Singapore apparently have a big long term deal with the studio, because of how valuable their Ubisoft Singapore studio is.
Whatever critics there are, I can assure you they would also love to be surprised if it turns out Skull and Bones becomes a success after all.
Skull and Bones is planned for release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows. The game will obviously be available on Ubisoft Connect, but it’s noteworthy that it currently has a listing on Epic Games Store, but no listing on Steam.
