Ubisoft may no longer be able to really claim that Skull and Bones is a AAAA game.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, retailers like Best Buy have immediately dropped their store price for Skull and Bones, from the controversial $ 70 standard the industry wants to foster on the industry, down to $ 45. UK retailer Hit has the game down to around $ 50 as well.
It is, of course, an indication of the poor critical and sales reception that the title received upon launch. This is not that Skull and Bones genre of ship simulation isn’t popular; World of Warships is a seriously successful free-to-play title.
Actually, if you took the time to read through the critic reviews, the game is not a total disaster, at all. It only mostly is a disaster. The critic consensus, rather, is that it has a lot of potential as a top tier ship simulator, that is mostly let down by its live service element. Its live service nature has seriously compromised its game design, but Skull and Bones still has its premier production values, actually good combat, and a surprisingly dedicated online community, of true believers.
Its MetaCritic stands at a 60, and it has an Opencritic Weak rating, with a 60 Top Critic Average. So, because of the nature of metascores, those aren’t likely to change, but Ubisoft can still turn the ship around on this game, so to speak, if they can deliver on the live service elements to keep those true believers happy, and eventually go the way of other live service games, of really defining themselves after they find that community and start building on it.
We should also remember that it was a miracle that this game exists, at all. While we know from reports that Ubisoft was essentially forced to finish this game because of a deal with the Singaporean government, they clearly made the effort to fix this title, that by all means should have been cancelled, as best as they can.
A lot of reviews also point out that Ubisoft fumbled in not getting the game out sooner than they did, but in their current situation, the company just could not afford to let this title fail.
This price drop also isn’t that different from how other games that did their redemption arc run played out. Of course, no one is going to ever forget that Cyberpunk 2077 even got pulled from PSN before CD Projekt RED turned that one around.
Ubisoft has made their bed with Skull and Bones, and now they have to lie in it. But maybe we will singing a different tune on this one two years or so down the line.
