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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Ubisoft’s premier pirate adventure Skull and Bones has faced stormy seas since its original launch six months ago, following on from an already troubled 11-year development cycle. Finally making its way to Steam as of Thursday August 22, alongside numerous PC-focused improvements there was hope it would catch some wind in its sails. However, only a few hundred players have shown up so far.

Skull and Bones reached a peak of just 394 concurrent players on Steam on its release day – as of this writing, some 24 hours later, this has jumped slightly to 432, but still remains shy of what might be considered its nearest pirate game rival, Sea of Thieves, which currently has 5,667 players.

In fact, Skull and Bones, despite being the much newer game, has a lower player count than one of its key inspirations, Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. In the last day, Black Flag has attracted a high of 758 concurrent players and right now, as of this writing, has just over a hundred more than Skull and Bones.

Skull and Bones’ Steam release is marked by a substantial 60% discount, available until September 5, which lowers the price of the game down to $24 / £20. Perhaps the planned free trial and Steam Deck version will also earn Skull and Bones more attention, but these have been delayed to an as-of-yet unspecified date.

Skull and Bones is finally on Steam, but unfortunately, it's not going well

Bringing Skull and Bones to the players hasn't given Ubisoft's pirate game the wind its sails needed, with just over 400 players on Steam.

www.pcgamesn.com

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

 

[Bloobs]

DisAAAAster

 

[Skifi28]

Yeah, I'd rather replay black flag for the third time if I'm honest.

 

[Gamezone]

Maybe Ubisoft should release their title at launch? Before Epic paid them. Now they are clearly using Epic's 6 months first run.

 

[Hudo]

Black Flag is objectively speaking the better-designed game. Even if it is shit as an Assassin's Creed game.

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

I mean who didn't see this coming from its inception

 

[Physiognomonics]

While not the spiritual successor to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag as some might have been hoping for...Skull and Bones can be repetitive and it doesn’t exactly capture that devil-may-care pirate lifestyle... feeling of limited exploration

This is a deserved failure, again. Not fun to play, limited exploration, not the spiritual successor of one of the best pirate game. I mean. As a pirate videogame I would hope to explore the world and have fun been... a pirate.

 

[Robb]

Skull and Bones’ Steam release is marked by a substantial 60% discount

has a lower player count than one of its key inspirations, like Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed Black Flag

 

[King Dazzar]

Slight tangent. But I'd love them to make actual sailing deeper in games. Lets have wind direction and weather types to have us use the wind to navigate. They try and make the games look great, but then have the ships just become shallow arcade tubs. Its something I'd love in stuff like the Witcher 3 too. These days, its just a visual journey around the world on water. I want more depth to the gameplay in boats...

 

[Skifi28]

I mean who didn't see this coming from its inception

It was impossible to see it coming as there was no data for AAAA games.

 

[Catphish]

AAAAnd it's dead.

 

[Hudo]

Maybe we were all just not good enough to appreciate the first AAAA game ever made. Maybe it's too many A's to even comprehend the greatness of AAAA.

Personally, I am waiting for Ubisoft's first AAAAA game.

 

[Fake]

Shit game, shit install base.

 

[Games of Today]

Slight tangent. But I'd love them to make actual sailing deeper in games. Lets have wind direction and weather types to have us use the wind to navigate. They try and make the games look great, but then have the ships just become shallow arcade tubs. Its something I'd love in stuff like the Witcher 3 too. These days, its just a visual journey around the world on water. I want more depth to the gameplay in boats...

I'm pretty sure the game Sailwind has this. Alongside real time travel time between destinations.

 

[Vyse]

I seriously had no idea this game was released.

 

[Draugoth]

Their first AAAA right here

 

[lughnasadh123]

OOOOF, there it is!
OOOOF, there it is!

 

[alexaxel99]

Well, another game that was funded by government money (in this case Singapur) and completely flopped, the next AAAA game that even a 10 years old game (AC Black Flag) has more mechanics and is miles better than this pathetic excuse of a "game", Ubisoft truly became a terrible company, between the disaster performance of this game, the recent controversies, the disastrous leadership, the fact that they have the same value in the market as 10 years ago (that explains a lot of their actual financial problems) and the fact that only Assassins Creed (at least at the moment) is the only profitable ip explains the current state of this joke of a company.
So they scammed the government of Singapur to take a lot of money and the higher-ups of Ubisoft spent a very wonderful holidays in that country. truly great.

 

[Saber]

As it should. Its a "pirate" game for retards. Unless they are fine chopping trees near your ship, girl boss blaming men for everything, crew composed of 80% women screaming and singing bad, raids that are not raids at all, ships that have stamina, and the list goes on.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Proof that the extra "A" did not equate extra success.

God man, 11 years. 11 years and that's what happens. What a money, time, and work sink.

 

[Diddy X]

lol at the inevitable comparison.

 

[TheStam]

Feels like Ubisoft are in a bad spot, their share price is down 77% since 5 years ago . I guess Assassin's Creed and Far Cry are strong franchises, but how many like myself are sick of their soul crushing formula. I enjoy Assassin's Creed in theory as the historical angle is great but they need to shake things up. Valhalla was way too bloated.

 

[Mownoc]

Skull & Bones Vs Concord battle royale begins in 2 hours.

 

[Fbh]

As someone in one of the Skull and Bones threads said:
Most people want a game where you play as a pirate, not as a pirate ship.

I still don't get how no one at Ubisoft realized that

 

[Complistic]

Ubisoft, LOL

 

[King Dazzar]

I'm pretty sure the game Sailwind has this. Alongside real time travel time between destinations.

Cool. Yeah I used to play iirc Virtual Skipper years and years ago. But for these Ubi games and RPG's. I dont think it needs full on simulator, but just take some of the elements where by tacking and wind direction basics factor in. And you get a visual representation of how well your sails are being used. If you went too full on simulator, it would become maybe too hard to get from A to B. But lets just do something deeper & better than motorboats for 16th/17th/18th Century sailing in RPG's.

 

[EverydayBeast]

The pirate thing sounds fun but why isn’t it? Pirates and video games just aren’t a match unless it can be like Zelda Wind Waker man, I said it last year that pirate Disney guy needs his own AAA game Johnny depp is a Hollywood hall of famer and I like the way he handles pirate characters pirates

 

[spartan30gr]

Gaas games is the future of gaming

 

[BigBeauford]

Watching a takedown video of this game and my god, the constant screaming harpies on your ship, and the lame cutscenes of listening to some woman complain about "it's all a boys club". ITS A FUCKING PIRATE GAME YOU MORONS

 

[Mattdaddy]

I thought the ship boarding combat was one of the coolest aspects of Black Flag naval battles.

Didnt they remove that for this game? I pretty much lost interest right there.

 

[Fahdis]

Why didnt they just copy/paste Black Flags system with some adjustments and different adventure narrative?

 

[dottme]

Why didnt they just copy/paste Black Flags system with some adjustments and different adventure narrative?

That’s the weird things. At the beginning it was feeling too much like black flags. But after all this development time, it just end up as worst than black flag.

 

[Alebrije]

If that Star Wars game falls thIs year Will be a Nightmare for UBI.

 

[Neon Xenon]

LLLL

 

[HorcaCZ]

AAAA, AAAA AAAA AAAA?

 

[HorcaCZ]

LLLL

Aaaaaa aaaaa, AAAA*!
(Almost there, AAAA*!)

 

[Games of Today]

I thought the ship boarding combat was one of the coolest aspects of Black Flag naval battles.

Didnt they remove that for this game? I pretty much lost interest right there.

You can't board ships, sword fight or shoot a musket. You know, the main things you would want to do in a pirate game? All of that has been removed, yes.

 

[StueyDuck]

You guys don't want to be the boat.

Instead of the cool pirate.

 

[Mattdaddy]

You can't board ships, sword fight or shoot a musket. You know, the main things you would want to do in a pirate game? All of that has been removed, yes.

Hahaha yeah maybe not the wisest of moves in hindsight.

 

[Bond007]

Not a popular opinion. I really enjoyed the game.
Endgame got alittle stale running the same routes over and over. But- i was looking for naval combat and really liked it.

 

[newtypepilot]

hAAAAhAAAAhAAAAhAAAA

 

[dispensergoinup]

It was impossible to see it coming as there was no data for AAAA games.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Was this thing ever floating to begin with? Seems like a prerequisite for sinking.

 

[Hrk69]

AAAA game

 

[Alebrije]

If that Star Wars game falls thIs year Will be a Nightmare for UBI.

If AC Shadows fail this year Will be a Nightmare for UBI