Ubisoft has taken plenty of heat over Skull & Bones: the game was once labeled “Quadruple-A” by the company’s CEO, endured years of delays, spent more than a decade in development, and still failed to win over players in its final form. That long, messy journey stood out to Alex Hutchinson, the director of Assassin’s Creed III and one of the creatives involved in the franchise’s early naval combat.

Hutchinson’s core surprise is simple: he doesn’t see much meaningful innovation in Skull & Bones’ sailing experience compared to what Ubisoft shipped 14 years ago in Assassin’s Creed III. For him, this is partly a timing problem. Ideas have a window, and when you reintroduce mechanics too late, they can feel outdated even if they once made sense.

Skull & Bones Was Trying To Be “A Mix of Black Flag With World of Tanks or World of Warships”

Alex Hutchinson left his mark at Ubisoft as creative director on both Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4, before departing to cofound Typhoon (the studio behind Journey of the Savage Planet) and later Raccoon Logic (makers of Revenge of the Savage Planet). Given his role in the first implementation of naval battles in Assassin’s Creed – later refined in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – he shared his perspective on Skull & Bones in an interview with PC Gamer.

Hutchinson said he felt strange “seeing essentially the same things re-released 14 years after we did it”. He went further, adding that “ideas have a window, and that’s another reason why we’re trying to do things faster”. Put plainly, mechanics like those used back in Assassin’s Creed III can “become obsolete” over time.

He also suggested that Ubisoft Singapore lacked the experience required for what it was attempting with Skull & Bones. “I think the team was junior,” he said, explaining that they were effectively trying to build “a mix of Black Flag with World of Tanks or World of Warships”. The problem, in his view, was capability and background: “I don’t think they had experience doing that,” and they also weren’t coming from shipping a full Assassin’s Creed game at that studio, because they had largely handled co-development tasks. From there, he believes it simply “got out of hand.”

Hutchinson also recalled how staffing and culture played into the situation. He said that for “many of the French or Canadian developers,” going to Singapore looked like “a vacation for a year.” Ubisoft reportedly sent people from France and Canada to help expand the Singapore studio, but Hutchinson’s impression was that the mindset was often, “Oh, it would be fun to work a year in Singapore,” and that “they didn’t take it seriously.” On top of that, he argued recruitment was constrained because “you couldn’t get that many people; the talent pool wasn’t big enough.”

Regardless of the long development cycle and repeated delays, Ubisoft eventually shipped Skull & Bones, and its reception remained muted. At the time of writing, the game sat at 67% “Mixed” user reviews on Steam, based on the opinions of more than 3,200 players, and it looks like it will have a hard time rebuilding popularity. Even so, the developers are still producing content for the pirate experience, with seasons such as Eye of the Beast arriving in February 2026.

Forrás: 3DJuegos