Skull and Bones, the live service pirate game that released just over two weeks ago on PS5, is already having its price slashed across the US and Europe. It was a full-price title at launch — your now-standard $69.99 / £69.99 — but it's currently down to as low as $44.99 / £49.85 (as reported by VGC). While that's certainly not what we'd call cheap, it's still a significant discount after such a short length of time on the market, and it suggests that retailers are struggling to shift copies.
Ubisoft's "AAAA" title (it's never escaping that one, is it?) was delayed numerous times over the course of several years before finally releasing last month. Unfortunately for the publisher, its arrival was met with rather lukewarm reviews and plenty of social media memes regarding its live service gameplay elements. It's been a bit of a damp squib, and the game didn't even have much hype behind it to begin with.
Honestly, we don't think it'll be long until these price points come tumbling down even further. Assuming Ubisoft continues to support Skull and Bones over the coming months, potential buyers will probably be best off waiting for big updates and even bigger discounts.
Did you envision an easier road to success for Skull and Bones, or is it destined to be forgotten sooner rather than later? Man the cannons in the comments section below.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 60
Ubisoft games seem to always go on discount fast. Wonder how they even stay open.
Awful
Abysmal
Atrocious
A bad video game that's not worth 70$
That's what the 4 AAAA's stand for.
hAAAAhAAAA!
Helldivers 2 is more salt to the Ubi wound hopefully
It's dead in the water. Pun intended.
This would have been canned long ago if it weren't for the government of the Philippines. Yet another pile of live service drivel which nobody wanted and nobody will miss.
Who would've guessed! This game should really have been £30 or F2P, or non existent
@Johnnycide I think it was Singapore, not Philippines
@Americansamurai1 because games like Valhalla made $1billion.
Skull & Bones will be a big mess to sort out though, and other games will have to make up for it. But then they have a Star Wars game coming at some point, so...
I think they are just glad it's finished more than anything. Obviously they'd love if it became a hit but I doubt they were really banking on Skull & Bones being a massive hit.
They can look at the bright side. It's out and now they can move the devs over to something more important like the Black Flag remake...well as soon as the post launch support ends anyway...and assuming they don't just lay-off the whole team...
Yeah it was a bit of a disaster huh?
I’ll download it when it’s F2P by the end of the year and fart around with it for a couple hours or so
Why is Ubisoft discounting their pirate game? Because they Arrrrrrr....
Sorry, will get my coat
It's a game that seems to scream F2P based on what I've seen. (Maybe due to bad marketing)
It should have at least been a budget title similarly to Helldiver's if it wanted to make a splash
@somnambulance I found something very funny about the notion of 'farting around' with free games. Like that's all they're good for, hahahaha.
I’m starting to think the “AAAA” comments were misunderstood, as it seems more and more likely they weren’t referring to high-quality games, but screams of infuriation: https://youtu.be/jVtp0pImrVo?si=cJ_J1QEEWWeAx2SV
@Happymoogle exaggeration at its finest. It's not awful. It's decent. Just not great.
Maybe Ubisoft will try to make a fun game next time.
When the ship combat is a downgrade from black flag why would anyone bother.
Oh, it must be the Ubisucks Discount Days
@Specky Or Sea of Thieves coming to Playstation.
Shouldn’t it be rated a AAAArgh game?
I hate to see studio failure, but it’s important for teaching lessons in the industry. People may be getting tired of live service games. Not entirely, as Hell Divers 2 shows, but this style of game may not be the future after all. Some companies hit it big, as we’ve seen with Genshin Impact and Fortnite, but lately they’ve not doing so hot. I just don’t want to see Sony give up on the big single player games while chasing live service gambles.
Ubisoft games always get discounted with a month or two after release, this is nothing new.
Though i’m sure this did perform poorly.
10% discount per A, Nice but still not interested.
I wouldn't play it for free.
My time is more valuable used on better games.
Still 79,95€ on EU PSN store in Finland.
I love the idea of a good pirate game.. but one that actually involves real pirate stuff.. exploring islands, chilling at bars, being a scoundrel, etc.. pirates rarely got into naval battles.. this game isn’t my taste.. you’d think Ubi could make 200 original islands to sail between with mysteries/treasure.. I’ve seen how bloated their worlds are.. I don’t wanna JUST shoot boats
That should have been the price from the start I hate wait for the content to make it a real game. After Anthem, Suicide squad, Marvel Avengers that other game from Platinum games you would think they would have learned something.
@naruball But it's not worth €70 it's a €40 game at most. If you have liveservice and it's not that special then €70 really is a joke.
Still playing this game daily and the devs are adding to it and fixing stuff weekly. There is an entire year of content planned and the first season of content just launched and has been a blast so far. The communication from the devs has especially been very refreshing. I bought at full price but would welcome a price drop of that got more people into it. The servers are always full of other players though, my seas and ports are littered with other players. I'm in love with this game. It's exactly what I've been waiting for going on nearly a decade. Just bought the plague armor this morning so hopefully that'll make taking down Le Peste even easier. If anyone wants to join up on the high seas hmu.
Psn: soracloud28
I wait for sea of thieves
I don't understand... it's a AAAA game? Ubisoft said as much?
But seriously, the only way in my mind to get a good player base for this would have been to launch at a lower, AA price point to entice players and try and make money on future DLC. No one is going to risk $70 on a live service game with so so reviews - not when Ubi are known for price drops.
@EYEBALL
Probably why they rushed it out so quickly.
So people won't have anything to compare about. Well at least the casual gamers and people like me who haven't paid attention to sea of thieves yet
@8bit4Life
Sony gave up on Factions 2. If any game had an insane potential for success it would've been that.
Helldivers 2 might give some hope for Factions 2, but Sony's really incompetent sometimes.
Helldivers 2 wasn't that big of a project, so the risk was lower. I can only imagine how big Helldivers 3 will be.
Point is, you can't just roll around in shiit and call it a live service game like Ubisoft does. The difference is that Sony actually DOES finish their games and then release it. If a game is crap and clunky on day 1, who in the name of hell would want to spend so much time on it? The core needs to carry that many hours of gameplay and literally no Ubisoft game is polished enough to do so.
@Mince that's fair - and I'll be honest, I never think of their sub service because of its price and lack of content for me personally but its by far a cheaper way of getting into a game like S&B!
20$ and I'll buy it.
AAAA got to mean Discounted Again and Again and Again and Again then its worth the price.
How has the Avatar game fared sales wise? I see it on sale every week on Xbox at like 40%. Guess the IP license wasn't that cheap.
Haven't bought it yet, I'm still yet to finish Far Cry 6, and I bought that game more than a year ago. I can wait until it's even cheaper.
Even if it was offered free on Plus, I'm not sure I'd get it!
I guess people are getting real comfortable not owning Ubisoft games, The CEO should be thrilled!
What happened to this being worth those big AAAA bucks?
They have rushed the release... They should have to work on it for 5 more years... 🤣
Seriously, any GaaS pricier than £20 is robbery on a customers.
Ubisoft be sailing against ye tide, trying to catch ye wave of gaming trends and failing miserably!
In the world where piracy is legal via high tax and loan interest, people are not interested in the traditional form 😉
Maybe I'll check it out for a night when it comes to PS Plus in a few months. Maybe
the captain goes down with the sinking ship and i refuse to be his
second in command. feels Sorry for Skull N Bones but all live service games live shorts fast lives and die Hard
@WolfyTn to be fair the variation in islands is really good and the attention to detail on all of them is great. Problem is, atm theres not much to do cept gather supplies and quests. The NPC backstories are quite good too.
Hopefully they'll add island combat and proper boat boarding. Everybody praises SOT now, but remember at launch and for a good time after it was terrible.
To the surprise of no one.
Coming to PS+ in 3, 2, 1….
@soracloud28 This didn't review terribly, but it's live service AND every one's favorite whipping boy Ubisoft.......
Sea of Thieves did not start so well either but has finished great.
I'm curious to see how it turns out
I swear Pushsquare published this same kind of article for another Ubi game at least once.
I feel bad for the devs who have to have such an embarrassing CEO.
@CallMeDuraSouka Don't blame people for not liking Skull and Bones for essentially being a worse version of Black Flag. The fact that you can't board ships or freely get off your boat to explore islands already makes it not worth $70.
Yup. I'm not gonna stop playing Helldivers 2 for this half assed garbage.
I played in Beta and it's not worth more than 20GBP.
So I'll wait till it's sold for that price, if it's not dead by then.
I'd rather replay a modest almost-indie game like TotK or a ridiculously low budget game (because it's missing the all important 4th A) like God of war or Horizon.
most PS4/5 games go down in price eventually, but not in 1 month.
@Flaming_Kaiser that's more than fair. But it's still not awful. Gollum is awful.
@naruball Agreed I believe at €40 with the aggressive monetization they would probably be ok.
@Flaming_Kaiser nah, that would have made too much sense. Look at WB and their logic when it comes to Hogwarts Legacy and Suicide Squad. It's like whoever makes these decision has no touch with reality.
@jorel262 some companies are notorious for doing that even for their successful games. Then there are those who don't, even when their games are dead one arrival.
@naruball I'm usually getting PS games years after release and by then they are $20-$30.
@jorel262 yup. Same here.
@jorel262 That's fine and all... but not everyone likes to wait years to do that (especially with every game). With the amount of games that get release every year... doing so will just make you backlog insufferable to finish.
People usually wait for those games that they aren't actually interested in the first place.
For example, I can wait for P3R or Baldur's Gate 3 to go on sale, even if it takes years (great games, but my interested in them are not that high). I can't do that with Elden Ring or God of War Ragnarok.
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