Ubisoft can’t seem to catch a break.
Having recently sparked global outrage on social media for its revisionism of Japanese culture and history which such controversy centering around their fictionalized portrayal of Yasuke a supposed historical figure as a mythical “Black samurai™” in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which comes off as a blatant attempt to push culture war bullshit and secure increased ESG funding.
The company recently announced another round of layoffs, cutting 45 employees from its US studios. Meanwhile, Star Wars Outlaws has faced significant criticism for its unexciting gameplay leading up to its release. Despite this, Ubisoft invested heavily in marketing, including flying content creators to Disneyland.
Gamers have expressed significant disdain for Ubisoft in recent months as the company proclaimed that players should “get used the idea” of not actually owning the games they paid for.
This sentiment was reinforced when Ubisoft shut down its live service game, The Crew, and removed it from UPlay / Ubisoft Connect libraries. Like many others in the gaming industry, Ubisoft has faced poor sales, declining profits, and falling stock prices due to a series of financial failures, including the high-profile failure of their ambitious project, Skull & Bones, touted as the world’s first quadruple-A video game.
First announced at E3 2017 and finally released on February 13, 2024, Skull and Bones is the culmination of nearly a decade of development hell, costing Ubisoft countless millions.
This online live service game focuses on naval combat, drawing comparisons to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but with lower quality in terms of gameplay, animations, and visual fidelity. The game’s launch was met with a lukewarm response, despite Ubisoft’s push to attract players to their $70 always-online pirate-themed adventure, even offering an 8-hour free trial for its release day.
A few weeks after the release of Skull and Bones, Insider Gaming reported that the game had attracted just 850,000 players, with many most likely coming from the free 8-hour trial. Very few players were willing to pay the $70 price for what was seen as a subpar multiplayer only rendition of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
As a result, retailers quickly began offering discounts on Skull and Bones for home consoles.
Ubisoft promoted Skull and Bones as the world’s first “AAAA” video game, claiming high player engagement despite widespread criticism of the game being dull and boring. Interestingly, Ubisoft has avoided mentioning the game in their quarterly financial results and earnings calls since its launch, suggesting that the game was a big (s)hit.
The game’s “success” was certainly hampered by its limited availability on the PC platform, as it was released only on Ubisoft’s own DRM storefront, UPlay (now Ubisoft Connect), and the Epic Games Store, excluding the largest PC digital storefront, Valve’s Steam.
For PC gamers frustrated with Ubisoft’s political agendas, such as subverting feudal Japan in Assassin’s Creed Shadows and introducing a fucking hideously ugly “female” character in Star Wars Outlaws, there is a change of course. Ubisoft has decided to end their exclusivity agreements for Skull and Bones and has now launched the game on Steam, broadening its availability beyond their own platform, UPlay (Ubisoft Connect), and the Epic Games Store.
Despite its delayed release on the most popular PC platform, Skull and Bones launched on Steam with a substantial 60% discount, reducing the game’s price to $24 USD. This discount also applies to the Deluxe and Premium Editions, priced at $30 and $36, respectively.
The introductory discount period lasts for two weeks, until September 5, which is double the duration of typical new release sales on Steam, which generally offer a 10% discount for just one week.
Despite the generous launch discount, to say Skull and Bones had a quiet release on Steam would be an understatement. Early user reviews are mixed, with only 50% positive feedback out of only 63 reviews while the whole world seemingly celebrates an anti-DEI victory with the Chinese release of Black Myth: Wukong, Ubisoft’s ambitious “AAAA” title is unlikely to recoup its development costs through its Steam release, as it peaked at just under 394 concurrent players.
That’s right, Ubisoft quietly released Skull and Bones on the Steam storefront with little to no marketing or fanfare, leading to a muted launch with only a few hundred players purchasing the game, even at a discounted price of $24.
Despite the steep 60% discount, Skull and Bones failed to generate significant interest. This is likely thanks partially due to Ubisoft’s recent controversies, such as shutting down The Crew and removing it from users’ libraries, as well as backlash over cultural appropriation in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed installment as gaming journalists do their usual thing and meatshield for racist corporations.
To highlight Ubisoft’s shortcomings with Skull and Bones on the biggest PC gaming platform, the game’s concurrent player numbers are significantly lower compared to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, a title that launched over a decade ago.
Additionally, Microsoft’s live service pirate game, Sea of Thieves, boasts over thirty times more concurrent players than Ubisoft’s latest offering, underscoring the underwhelming performance of Skull and Bones despite its high ambitions and long development period.
Skull and Bones’ third season of content, dubbed “Into the Dragon’s Wake” hasn’t really done much of anything to steer the ship around as it seems the world’s first “AAAA” video game should’ve remained docked to the harbors of Epic Games and Ubisoft Connect.
Ultimately, this situation benefits gamers who have developed resentment towards Ubisoft and their woke ideology. A petition to cancel Assassin’s Creed Shadows has gathered over 104,000 signatures, each signature representing a commitment to boycott the upcoming release.
Ubisoft continues to incorporate DEI elements into their games, as political correctness and a fixation on race are now deeply ingrained in their business. Gamers are growing more self-aware and are increasingly making their own choices, including whether to buy a game or not, based on their personal preferences and reasons, much to the dismay of journalists and their allies.
The poor sales performance of Skull and Bones on Steam is likely to be reflective upon Ubisoft’s larger releases in the coming months. The company is facing financial strain, having laid off over a thousand employees in the past year.
Their games are no longer yielding substantial profits due to declining sales and rising development costs. This issue has been affecting the AAA gaming industry overall, which seems increasingly vulnerable to collapse as Larry Fink’s ESG initiatives continue to alienate the core audience, straight men by pushing games to conform to progressive, queer-centric agendas which alienate consumers.
