Ubisoft's tempestuous pirate epic Skull & Bones is finally making some headway, as sources confirm that the game has officially left alpha, eight years after its inception. But don't start loading up the cannons just yet - Skull & Bones still has no release date, and it appears Ubisoft may not be entirely certain what the game will be when it does launch.
Skull & Bones was originally conceptualized as an expansion to Ubisoft's landmark title, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. It eventually morphed into its own individual property, thanks in some small part to a deal made between Ubisoft and Singapore that grants the studio generous subsidies for employing a certain number of residents and producing and launching new IPs over the next few years. Ubisoft Singapore has been spearheading Skull & Bones, but despite the game's origin story and premise, along with a few promising reveals, development was rarely smooth sailing. Skull & Bones, as a result, ended up being rehashed, reconfigured, and redesigned so often that its release window was pushed back four times over the course of three years.
Apparently, a major problem was a lack of clear direction from the get-go, as Skull & Bones ran through three creative directors and a Kotaku report says there was uncertainty at Ubisoft about decision-making and how the game was going to be produced. Some developers reportedly worked for years on assets and designs that would end up unused. This in turn led to an exodus of team members to other projects and companies, and, ultimately, a complete reboot of Skull & Bones' development in 2020. But despite these egregious setbacks, Skull & Bones has finally reached a major milestone in its production, as Ubisoft recently confirmed to Kotaku that the game has passed the alpha phase.
While this is a milestone, Ubisoft's statement to Kotaku alludes to a major factor in Skull & Bones' frequent delays: a reportedly toxic work culture at home port Ubisoft Singapore. On a wider level, Ubisoft is still undergoing internal investigations and an overhaul of its management after several employees reported experiencing sexual harassment and workplace toxicity. In fact, Ubisoft Singapore somewhat removed one of the offenders, Hugues Ricour, Skull & Bones's former game director.
For the time being, it appears Skull & Bones' development is clear of these toxic waters. Ubisoft has reportedly sunk over $120 million on the game's development, which could mean there's no feasible economic way that it could just scrap it and move on to different projects. At the time of writing, there is no confirmed release date for the title, nor is there any definitive answer of what to expect. At the very least, Skull & Bones having passed alpha is a promising milestone that indicates that it's could be sailing in the right direction at last.
Source: Kotaku