Over the weekend, Ubisoft held its first digital event that they call Ubisoft Forward to detail what’s next from the company. The event showcased new looks at several of Ubisoft’s upcoming games such as Watch Dogs: Legion, Hyper Scape, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and the first look at Far Cry 6’s main villain played by Giancarlo Esposito. What we didn’t see were several other games that the company has shown off during their previous E3 conferences such as Gods & Monsters, Beyond Good & Evil 2, and Skull & Bones. At the end of the Ubisoft Forward presentation, President Yves Guillemont did say that there is going to be another Ubisoft Forward event later this year so it’s possible that we’ll get new look at them then. However, we may not see Skull & Bones because a new report by VGC reveals that the game is being rebooted after several delays.
Skull & Bones was first revealed at E3 2017. It’s a pirate game that was inspired by the Naval combat of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. At E3 2018, Ubisoft announced that the game would get a beta leading up to its release later that year, but nothing happened. The game has been delayed ever since. According to several development sources, the delays were attributed to the developers trying to make it unique and different from the other Ubisoft open-world games such as Assassin’s Creed, The Division, and Watch Dogs. Last year, the decision was made to reboot the game entirely and move it in a new direction away from Ubisoft’s open-world games.
The game will now focus being a live service game similar to Fortnite, Destiny 2, and others featuring a persistent game world with quests, characters, and storylines that will evolve and change over time. The game’s change in direction has also marked a change in leadership as the original creative director has been replaced by former Editorial VP Elisabeth Pellen.