Ubisoft has a big show coming up with a second Ubisoft Forward this week, but one game that won’t be part of the event is the long-in-development swashbuckling pirate game Skull & Bones.
In a blog post, creative director Elisabeth Pellen confirmed that Skull & Bones has begun production again “in full swing with a new vision.” Pellen said developer Ubisoft Singapore is “fully committed” to launching the game and supporting it for many years after launch.
Although Skull & Bones won’t be at Ubisoft Forward this week, the developer confirmed it is “working on plans to present Skull & Bones sometime in the future. It will be worth the wait.”
Pellen went on to say that Ubisoft’s vision for Skull & Bones has expanded over time, and this has caused delays.
“Many of you have been wondering why we’ve had to postpone our launch. The answer is that we simply needed more time,” Pellen said. “We dreamt something bigger for Skull & Bones, and these ambitions naturally came with bigger challenges.”
These challenges led to “necessary delays,” Pellen said.
“Critical questions needed to be addressed over the past several months such as: how do we modernize the classic pirate fantasy? How do we ensure a more immersive and visceral experience? How do we create cool and memorable moments in-game? For most of these questions to be answered, it was clear that we needed more development time,” she said.
Pellen also confirmed that Ubisoft needed to hire “fresh eyes” to work on Skull & Bones, including herself. “I was one of those people when I joined as Skull & Bones’ creative director a little over two years ago. I have been part of the game’s core team that leads many of the talented developers at Ubisoft Singapore. Since then, many new talents have joined our global crew,” Pellen said.
Like other Ubisoft games, multiple teams are working on Skull & Bones alongside Ubisoft Singapore; the support studios include Ubisoft’s teams in Berlin, Chengdu, Kiev, Paris, and the Philippines.
“We’re proud of the work we’ve done and we hope you will be too when you see more of Skull & Bones at our comeback next year,” Pellen said. “Until then, on behalf of everyone in the Skull & Bones team around the world, keep safe and we will see you again soon!”
In July, it was reported that Ubisoft was rebooting Skull & Bones, and the wording of today’s blog post–in particular the “new vision” comment–seems to suggest that it might be happening.
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