At its E3 2017 conference, Ubisoft finally unveiled its new IP Skull & Bones. At the event, there was a trailer for this title of pirates that, according to Ubisoft, will be a long-term gaming experience. According to Yves Guillemot, executive director of the company, Skull & Bones will be one of the strong cards of Ubisoft for the future.
Guillemot says that the inscriptions for the beta of the game have broken all the records of past titles of Ubisoft. This huge response from the players is unprecedented in the company, so it is a good symptom for the premiere of Skull & Bones.
On the other hand, Olivier de Rotalier, managing director of Ubisoft Singapore, spoke with the GameSpot media and commented on the similarities of this new IP with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. For that title, the development team created a prototype of naval battles, however, they chose not to put it inside Black Flag and work to “make it bigger and stronger.”
According to Guillemot, separating Skull & Bones from Black Flag would give the development team more creative freedom for the new pirate title: “We didn’t want the limits–creating a new IP gives you the chance to do whatever you want. It’s a way to get more freedom,” says Guillemot.
To conclude, Rotalier said that Skull & Bones will be a long-term online title. This implies support for 10 to 15 years, however, the director clarified that it will be decided once the game is in the market and according to its sales number: “We are building a game that we want to support in the long term, that relies on strong mechanics; RPG, online. We want to build a strong service to be able to support a long-term experience,” Rotalier concluded.
Skull & Bones will debut on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC sometime in the fall of 2018.
