Skull and Bones, the long-in-development nautical nastiness simulator from Ubisoft has hit another squall, with reports that the PS Store has automatically refunded some customers' pre-orders. Further, as of the time of this writing, pre-orders on the PS Store have been disabled for the title, with potential pirates only available to wishlist the title and not lay down any of their hard-earned booty.
As reported by PlayStation LifeStyle, users on Reddit and Twitter noted that their pre-orders had been refunded, but curiously, without an accompanying explanatory email. In both cases, it was the Deluxe Edition of the game that had been refunded. It has been theorised that Skull and Bones' recent delay may have caused the issue, with the title's now nebulous release window of 2023 triggering something on the back end.
Ubisoft has yet to comment directly (outside of a generic customer service response), but we hope they can get things ship-shape in short order. We recently got to see a significant amount of gameplay, which does look like a good bit of swashbuckling fun.
Did you pre-order Skull and Bones, and if so, has your order been refunded? Dig for buried treasure in the comments section below.
[source playstationlifestyle.net]
Comments 54
Looks like it’s going the way of The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake.
This game is so getting canceled just watch. Right along with Beyond good and evil 2.
The game was due out in a few months. It’s not getting cancelled. You don’t sink tens of millions of dollars, years of high profile manpower, and show off detailed gameplay videos to cancel a game on the eve of its release. It’s still coming and it probably won’t be much altered from how it would’ve released if it came out on time. They may be retooling the plan of what to do post-release, however.
I could be wrong since I rarely preorder games, but isn't it common practice to be refunded when release date is pushed? Only time I had that was for South Park fractured but whole. I remember getting that refund right when PSVR dropped and spent that $60 on a few VR games (no email and no notification. Just found money in my wallet. Wasnt until days later that I realized it was a refund for that game.) While the game undoubtedly is in turmoil, it sounds like their deal with the Malaysian govt will force their hand to release it eventually.
Must be going free-to-play, right?
@somnambulance You are quite optimist. I've seen way much more millions sink down the toilet, than some poor-average multiplayer game development.
No wonder Ubisoft is in the red with all these cancelations/delays!
@Truegamer79 @somnambulance @djlard They took a bunch of Singaporean government money from an economic development program to make this at Ubi Singapore. They literally can't cancel. Even if they release it and sell to 10 people it's less failure than having to refund the grant.
But my guess is there removing gaas features and retooling it as more single player since their gaas projects have all failed lately. That way it won't consume as much ongoing resources.
I'm hoping this turns out to be a great game seeing as its been in development for what seems like forever..i expect it to be savaged in the comments section when it does appear..
@Bentleyma Sure seems that way....though difference is I have zero interest in Skull & Bones.
Here's hoping they will still release Prince of Persia remake.
Man, I feel for the developers. So much time put into this and Ubi just can't figure out what to do with it. So little actual progress/changes whenever they show it off. Based on what we've seen, it will bomb on release, pretty much regardless of what they're trying at this late stage.
@Jayslow I had this happen with Forspoken when it was delayed too, yeah. The difference is an email came explaining that I had been refunded because of the delay.
It seems like this is the same thing here, but it's strange that there's no email.
@PenguinLtd Gamers 🤷♂️
I bet Ubi really wish they could just drop this.
@Truegamer79 It can't be cancelled as the Singapore Government helped fund it.
Can Ubisoft afford to refund the game these days? I mean that must be at least £350 they had to pay back
@somnambulance the game was due out nearly 5 years ago too, I don't think it will get cancelled but they're in a really bad spot with this game and it will be a miracle if it has any success
I played the closed beta of this about 2 or 3 months ago, needed a lot work it was dull and janky, anytime off the ships had awful fps, character models were dated,. I know its a multiplayer game but still lack of single player campaign is gonna hurt this game, that is if it ever gets released
Surprised they hadn't retooled this as a free-to-play title as it seems pretty obvious it is going to bomb hard when it eventually does get released. At least as a live service game it stands a chance.
Time to scuttle this turd.
I got an email about the refund;
Thank you for pre-ordering from PlayStation®Store.
We have become aware of a significant delay to the release date of this title. As a result, we have withdrawn this product from PlayStation Store, cancelled your pre-order and refunded the price back to your original payment method. This may take 30-60 days to appear on your bank statement. If your original payment source is unavailable, we will refund the purchase amount to your PlayStation Network wallet. This game will be available for purchase again if a new release date is confirmed.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
The PlayStation® team
@Jayslow on eShop, a preorder is set to charge the actual money with thr designated payment method a week before release date, which usually aligns with preload availability. If it's the same here, said release date getting pushed forward sure sounds like a cancellation cause lest things get more awkward otherwise. Although the article specifically uses the "refund" term... is that a synonym here, or does PSS really charge the full sum out the gate?
EDIT: ah, looks like we've got the answer, thanks to @PikaFyi above for the info.
I'm rooting for this game to be surprisingly good. I'm not putting down pre-order money on it...and I can't say what has been shown inspires much confidence but I'm still rooting for it.
@nhSnork Annoyingly PlayStation preorders take the money when you preorder. It's always annoyed me, should be able to preorder and easily cancel if I change my mind.
If this was Black Flag by another name with a bit of refinement it'd be my most anticipated game by miles. Live service multiplayer loot grinder with no narrative? Not interested.
I guess the pitch of a more in-depth Black Flag, with multiplayer and no AC mechanics got lost versus a BF2 game.
@djlard @NEStalgia @carlos82 It’s definitely coming, just probably retooling it. It’s either going to restructure to emphasize GAAS processes or reduce them. Who knows what Ubisoft feels is a better bet, but they’re making some type of bet, I’m sure. Ubisoft is trying to chase trends with this game and I’m sure they’re aware it could be a massive flop, so I believe they’re trying to make a game they feel will have some success rather than one that’ll be, ahem, dead in the water…. Unless of course staff goes on strike this Friday. We shall see.
Regardless of anything, I’m looking forward to Mirage from them at least. I’m not hoping on the hate bandwagon. I’m no optimist by any means, but I refuse to take the hype train anywhere and lately the hype train goes to negative station in the gaming community. You’d almost think that gamers want 90% of games to fail by reading what people say online sometimes. Lol.
Speaking of games we can’t pre-order on the PlayStation store:
Any thoughts why we can’t pre-order Burning Shores yet even though it’s due out in a couple of months, release date and everything? It isn’t even listed anywhere on the store yet. I bought the PS5 version, it’s installed, but no sign of BS. I keep seeing the PSVR game and thinking that’s it. April 19, 2023. 🤷🏻♂️
Modern gaming eh?!?!?
Almost like announcing a game 5 years in advance is a bad idea
@somnambulance Reminds me of Duke Nukem...
I didn’t think the most recent gameplay video looked that bad. I would have tried it if it was a single player experience.
@djlard The last Duke Nukem game eventually releases and effectively nuked any chance the Duke had for future titles. I imagine we’ll see Ubisoft being sort of scorched earth for their titles in the near future to avoid losing half a bil every year.
@somnambulance I don't think the French strikes would affect the game since it's made mostly/entirely at Ubi Singapore.
The trend chasing is Ubi's main problem why most of their things fail. Square, too. This game, when first announced sounded awesome right up until they said it's a GaaS and on Stadia, lol. Since then it's looked like another bland Ubi trend chaser doomed to fail like every other Ubi trend chaser has. I'm hoping after this past year of shortfalls and the fact that every single GaaS failed so hard they didn't even mention those in the earnings report and put all the blame on Mario and a dancing panda, that they're retooling this to be less GaaS than intended. Ubi has pretty consistently failed at all GaaS, yet thrown all their eggs in that basket, where only AC succeeds, in spite of, not because of the GaaS elements.
@rjejr That seems lots of signs of BS to me
Maybe they're waiting for HFW Remastered.
@NEStalgia Hey now, leave Square out of this!
(And, yes, because I have a feeling you’ll ask, I AM still excited about Forspoken… perhaps MORE excited about Forspoken knowing that it’s 12-ish hours long for the main campaign and got divisive reviews)
I just don’t know why Ubisoft keep fighting for the GAAS thing when they’ve only had Rainbow Six Siege as a success with the format. And that one was a given too. I mean, most people have picked up on Ubisoft titles because, for the most part, their typical fans love giant open worlds with outstanding production values and lots of mini-game style “conquer this” missions. The quest marker chasing quests, ironically enough, was also something people liked about their games too, but when they were smaller. There’s obvious things people love about Ubisoft and why their games usually sell so well.
I mean the writing is on the wall for Just Dance’s success. It was a game tailor made for the Wii and we’re not really in a generation where random non-gamers buy a console for novelty movement games anymore. Because sales were lower, did they expect it to have better success with Day 1 DLC and micros when the game is a yearly title? And what kind of sales did they project for Mario+Rabbids 2, the sequel to, without a doubt, the most niche Mario title currently being made? I will say that my son really wants me to buy it though, so something of the marketing worked on him for some reason. But I played the first one and that was enough for me and he’s five, so there’s that. Maybe Ubisoft needs to make children’s games? I let him loose on HFW yesterday just to go from point A to B while hiding from robot dinosaurs and that sort of seemed like perfection in game design to him. I told him he couldn’t use weapons, but could hide and run. Lol. And yeah, I know HFW isn’t a Ubisoft game, but it totally feels like one.
@somnambulance Somewhere in Tokyo at S-E HQ:
"We found one, somnambulance-san will buy anything we make! Quick get the NFTs!!! We're saved!!!"
I think with Ubi, they have an obsession with chasing trends. They got a taste of the sweet life with AC going huge, and decided about 10+ years ago that they could join the big boys for the big money, and threw the entire company behind that throwing good money after bad until it happens. And it never happened.
I think one bad thing for Ubisoft was that Sony horned in on their turf. Sony's games have unabashedly copied Ubisofts formula and thrown even bigger budget at production value than Ubi, kind of leaving them pushed out of their own territory. Spiderman, Horizon, inFamous, Tsushima....they're pretty all just Ubisoft games but even more enhanced and more importantly more heavily marketed as "premium". That left Ubi I think seeking new directions from their own format, but their own format is still their best seller. They've seemed adrift because they are.
I can't believe Just Dance actually still sells as well as it does. It's so past it's era, the very concept is horribly dated and I'm stunned there's much market for it at all.
I'm not convinced Mario + Rabbids 2, or even Just Dance REALLY underperformed though. They have not provided numbers at all that I've seen. They SAY they expected higher sales, but that may well be the same as Square expecting higher sales on TR2013 that sold insanely well. I'm still of the opinion that they just used those games as scapegoats for larger failures elsewhere. They launched 2, or was it 3 big budget GaaS games that were DoA and pulled the plug instantly. They didn't even mention that in the AGM and only said Mario fell down a hole. I doubt they were expecting Odyssey numbers. And Odysssey doesn't get 2D Mario numbers. Nintendo promoted it well, I doubt it sold badly. I think they just "expected" it to plug a R6 Extraction/Roller Champions/Hyperscape shaped hole for the purposes of telling investors why they're posting losses without having to say the words "Extraction", "Roller", or "Hyperscape" once during the entire meeting. Blame Mario was their........spark of hope......
And yeah, HFW is basically a Ubisoft game...that's Ubi's problem A 5 year old playing HFW though....I mean Horizon's not really an "easy" game IMO, it's one of Sony's more challenging titles IMO. Yeah, I know, no weapons, but still, the map awareness required for stealth is not quite Splinter Cell but it still takes some skill. Actual combat...those robodinos pack a punch and move fast, and without a lock-on, aiming is pretty serious FPS/TPS stuff. IMO it's a much more skill-based game than GoW or anything ND puts out. GoT....IDK, its stealth is more complex, but the actual combat is still easier than Horizon I think. Hitting weak points and managing elemental weaknesses along with the resource management is unusually challenging by Sony standards. Couldn't start the kid on Spiderman which is more age appropriate, huh?
@NEStalgia Lol. Yeah, Horizon’s technically not age appropriate, but dinosaur robots are really up his alley and I just wanted to see what he did with it. He liked it enough and played it how I expected, which was climbing mountains and flying on the pterodactyl robot, whatever it was called. Kids are ok with just gameplay and no story. I explained where to go and how to follow to the checkpoints. He wanted to go to the “T-Rex robot” to look at it, and that’s what he finished up with. I’m getting sort of bored with watching him play Sonic Frontiers. I reinstalled Horizon, Sackboy, Rift Apart, The Pathless, and Kena for him to try out, just to have him play something other than Sonic Frontiers. He actually liked The Pathless the best of the games, which is healthy, and was much more competent in Rift Apart than I expected.
You know, with the GAAS titles that Ubisoft has done recently, you’d think they’d like… advertise them or tell people they’re there. At least two of them, I had no idea they even existed til they were shutting down. There was another one that had a beta last year, an FPS, and I had a friend that really enjoyed it and said it was overall better than expected, even if wasn’t perfect, and that game has disappeared. It was another loosely Tom Clancy title, but it’s so odd how they manage these properties these days. It seems like, if it’s not AC or Far Cry, there’s little confidence in the product, which is odd because they toss out some bizarre stuff for AC and Far Cry. I have a feeling that they’re blowing more money on the stuff we don’t know about and are nervous with having too much going on. I also think that they did expect Mario+Rabbids to be a bigger hit because the first one sold so well, without realizing it sold so well because there was effectively like 12 games for Switch at release. I remember having I think every single physical release for Switch in December 2017 and it wasn’t hard to do.
Square knows I’ll buy 90% of their games, but won’t buy NFTs. If they call me up, they can rely on me to tell them all the positive fluff they need.
Yep i pre-ordered it and got a refund , wasn't sure why i recieved £69.99 from Playstation at first till i checked the PS Store , sucks that it's been pulled for now but i'm still looking forward to the game and hopefully there will be full on release date instead of a temporary one soon.
@NEStalgia "Maybe they're waiting for HFW Remastered."
I figured they were waiting for people to pay $600 to play H in PSVR2 cause despite having like 32 games for PSVR 2 I think H is the big system seller. 🤑
Though maybe I should be nice and give their evil corporate incompetency the benefit of the doubt and since it's only playable on PS5 but probably a lot of people bought the PS4 version then upgraded for free - see the the half dozen articles on this site telling us to do so - and now they are trying to figure out how to only let people buy the PS5 DLC but not let them spend the money if they only own the PS4 version b/c then people would be screaming for refunds.
If they only let people buy the DLC if they PURCHASED the PS5 version, like I was convened would happen a year ago, then they'll also have a big publicity problem on their hands. Maybe they'll charge $20 if you bought the PS5 version but $30 if you bought the PS4 version and upgraded for free? All greedy like.
OK I know my grammar sucks but I think you can probably tell what I'm getting at and maybe that's an actual issue? 🤷♂️
@rjejr checks PSVR2 H:CotM bundle preorder.....yep, confirmed!
TBH Moss is my system seller and free GT7 VR sweetened the pot and tipped me over the preorder fence for it, but I do love Horizon so it was a big plus getting a new Horizon game for it too
But yeah, I did that, bought HFW PS4 then did the upgrade. Which is idiotic, they should have just stuck with the $60 pricing rather than the awkward upgrade process that just fleeces anyone that "doesn't know better." Half the game's sales are PS5 bundles sold to people who didn't want the game, anyway.
I would think it would be easy enough to do the PS5 version though, because the "free" upgrade works the same way as $10 "upgrades" for other games in their system, it sends the "thank you for your purchase" email and everything and shows that you "own" both the PS4 and PS5 "games." It doesn't know that you upgraded for free 45 seconds after purchasing.
I don't think they could restrict to DLC only to people who paid for a "PS5 version" instead of the (free) upgrade - only because they can't really tell. If you bought it directly or " upgraded" it still shows up in your library as "PS5 version - owned", so only physical buyers would have any difference that's visible. I mean sure they could check if you upgraded or bought it directly but that would be wildly intrusive. I don't trust Jim as far as I could through a truck full of Scotch, but I don't think even he's quite that degenerate.
What on earth has happened to Ubisoft these days? How the mighty have fallen. They were one of the biggest video game publishers in the early Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry days, now they are just not what they used to be. The last few Assassin’s Creed were decent but their other IPs not so much. They should get snapped up by Sony or Microsoft to inject fresh new talent to make several IPs great again.
@NEStalgia "but I don't think even he's quite that degenerate."
Well somethings going on for it to not be on the store yet. Not only can you not pre-order it, it doesn't even exist. That's weird for a 4 month away release.
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/search/horizon%20forbidden%20west%20burning%20shore
Unless they just can't decide how much to charge, $20 or $30, though since it's PS5 only I'd have to guess $30. 🤑
Here's Call of the Mountain, a bargain at $60 on the $500 + $600 = $1,100 console plus, which I guess means the series is called "Horizon" and there should always be a : after Horizon in the name.
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP9000-PPSA09555_00-HZVRCALLMOUNTAIN
@somnambulance Ubi should consider truth, that quality is way more important than quantity. AC Valhalla is example of it...
@djlard Was this pro or con toward Valhalla? Valhalla’s story wasn’t perfect by any means, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the game. I purchased it just a little bit after launch only because PS5 had so few launch titles, but ended up being really happy I did. I’ve got a few complaints about the game, sure, but it was solid for me. Best AC since Black Flag, in my opinion, of course.
@rjejr 550 for vr, 600 includes the game, so at least there's a $10 price break as a bundle, 50 for a launch PS5 game, and Jimbo said they need the money...
It's definitely that it's weird you can't pre-order dlc. Wonder if it means it'll be bundled in a directors cut complete edition announced when the TV show starts.
I just assume the reason there's no colon in the name is the same reason my prices don't have dollar signs... Too hard to type them on phones
So in other words, feedback on the trailer have not been to Ubisoft's liking?
@somnambulance I got it a few weeks after release, and still didn't finished it. I can hardly find any Pros, but Cons could weight solid book. Simply, it changed from stealth action game into running simulator with absolutely forgetable story. Everything is so huge it turned to be hollow.
@djlard I disagree. It’s a bit more action-based, more of a Viking simulator, but certainly pared back from Origins and Odyssey’s massive bloat. I did have issues with the characters and story, but the gameplay hasn’t been so tight in a long while for me. Now, granted, I don’t really do much fluff in games either. I’ll do a few side quests and side things, but largely stick to the main story when I play. For Valhalla, I would argue that the impact of the story would’ve been stronger if sections were cut. In general, it’s odd to say, but if they trimmed maybe 10-20 hours of the main story, it could’ve been as good as Black Flag for me, but still behind the AC2 trilogy.
@somnambulance Still they cancelled the Batgirl movie because they could use it as a tax write off I don't know if they pull the same thing with games.
@NEStalgia "I just assume the reason there's no colon in the name"
I assume it's because "Horizon Zero Dawn" was 1 title in their heads at the time, it does sound ok as 1 3 word name, and only after it took off and became a franchise did they then realize "Oh, guess we should have a put a colon in there for our other "Horizon" games. See "Star Wars". But don't see "Episode 4". 😝
And I'm still going w/ nefarious greedy incompetence for the DLC until I see it show up no strings attached or hoops to jump through. You could be correct about a PS5 "HFW: CE" for $69.99 that includes the DLC on store shelves and on PSN store as it will be over a year since the game launched but they could still have it available online by now w/ the $19.99 or $29.99 price, just maybe not have pre-orders open yet?
I just checked the store and I still don't see it, though there are pages for Suicide Squad and Avatar, which aren't dated yet. 🤷♂️
@somnambulance for me it is just running, running, oh action (5 secs later) running, running. Stealth - gone, Parkour - gone, Ancient relics - gone, Fun - gone.
Basics of Assassin's Creed franchise is modern character (Desmond, Layla etc.) relive part of historic character (Altair, Ezio etc.) life to find ancient relic in modern world.
So, now tell me how much affects 120 hours of forced running, relic location? If you look at that game's map, 90percent is generic like chessboard. Everything is far for almost same distance 450m.
A few years back was as "filler" used huge armies of enemies from nowhere (your rival with endless army of noname soldiers is always behind you, but his army is always in front).
But Ubi choose different filler and that is running from A to B without any particular reason to be played (for example Witcher 3 has jumps between locations during cutscenes, while new ACs forces you to run there on your own).
@djlard The stealth and parkour are still there in Valhalla, just in limited doses. Like Black Flag, there’s a higher focus on action and travel. You realize you can fast travel, of course. I’m not arguing that the game is excellent though, just that it’s an improvement off the bloat from Origins and Odyssey. I’m never someone that’ll invest 120 hours into a game. I think I cleared Valhalla in 45 hours or so and fluffed about with it another 10 hours afterward or so. It got grindy for a bit, I do agree with that, but it was largely a good time for me. I enjoyed the title, even with its problems.
@somnambulance I have crossed Origins and Odyssey (platinum) from upside down right to left, just because I don't want to play it again as same as I did with all previous Assassins Creed games. From Odyssey I barely remember one side quest and completely forgot story. In Origins was story so chaotic that I remember only I didn't understand it. Yes, Valhalla is less forgetable, but more plain. Yes, stealth and parkour is limited, but to the edge of zero. Some caverns, where you can climb only some of walls, because others would be shortcuts that level designer just don't want you to use even if it looks same. Most sad is that parkour you enjoy as Layla in some glitch, but again, ruined by some laser puzzles.
And stealth lost its purpose, because most of locations have endless spawn points and sooner than later somebody spots you and fight starts. ...I've killed more than 500 enemies in some castle just to find out they spawn from nowhere...
@djlard We’ve got two totally different approaches to the game. See, I don’t have time to plat games right now and honestly haven’t since the PS3 era. I like to play games for the story first and foremost and if I get trophies, I get trophies, no sweat if I don’t. I can see how Valhalla could wear you out with that approach. I myself prefer a bane to be 20 hours than 120 hours. That difference in play style likely affects our opinions here.
@somnambulance I also don't have time to platinum games, it was just coincidence, that Odyssey could get platinumed on first playthru. But I have different playstile. Start game, complete all side quests (I'm always angry when they are "story progression" locked) and in the end finish main story. I don't have much time for playing, so I "suck out" everything game gives on first run and than move on another. There are only few games in my life I return to multiple times (Diablo, XCom, Final Fantasy)
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