Skull and Bones has been delayed for many years but it's finally coming out this month as a $70 game, despite being a live-service game focused on multiplayer. Yves Guillemot, the co-founder and CEO of Ubisoft, said the game is going to be worth that $70 because it is a “quadruple-A” game, implying it's above Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, and other triple-A games.
During the company’s most recent conference call (via VGC), Guillemot was asked about the game’s full $70 price tag. The games-as-a-service model tends to work better if it's free to download or has single-player content, but Guillemot insists that this game’s sheer scope is worth $70.
“You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game,” Guillemot said. “It’s a very big game, and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. It’s a really full, triple… quadruple-A game, that will deliver in the long run.”
It will be interesting to see the fan reception to Skull and Bones, as the pirate-based multiplayer game has been delayed for many years. The amount of delays this game has had almost made it a Duke Nukem Forever-style joke, so the fact it’s coming out this year is cathartic. Still, the fact this is a multiplayer game does mean that $70 is steep and the “quadruple-A” reason might not be enough for some.
When fans first saw the game, many assumed that Ubisoft was just reusing assets from Assassin’s Creed 4, due to that’s entry’s pirate setting. Ubisoft does like to reuse assets more than most companies, which is a fair cost-cutting measure, but making a $70 game out of it seems a bit much. The fact that it will compete with so many popular multiplayer games that have huge player bases and cost less is going to be a huge challenge.
Read More: Skull & Bones Associate Game Director Leaves Ubisoft
Skull and Bones is finally coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and PC on February 16.