Told test recordings to Skull and bones has leaked online and shows a large part of the blockbuster’s transformation since it was last officially shown at E3 2018. It’s beautiful and also looks like a textbook modern Ubisoft game. Players will collect drawings, loot materials and build their rankings to get bigger and better ships. Travel and paint sailors.
That new leaked gameplay footage, which lasts just over six minutes, describes how players will complete contracts for NPCs to rank and unlock new ship designs and upgrades. They supply their ships with “rations, water, repair kits and ammunition” before going out to sea. If their ship is destroyed or their crew mutinies, they will lose rank and revive somewhere else, while other players have a chance to save their wreck. Sources tell Kotaku it could finally be out as soon as the fall of 2022.
When Skull and bones was first unveiled at E3 2017, it was launched as a session-based shooter focusing on PVP. The new test footage instead focuses on resource management, which shows how players will harvest things like ore, timber and animal skins, which can then be refined in the main social hub for other materials. “Crafting is an important activity for you to develop as a notorious pirate,” says the narrator. The footage emphasizes that the game can be played solo, but Ubisoft recently described it as “multiplayer-firstThere’s even a robust “Vanity Shop” for cosmetics.
As Kotaku reported last year, Skull and bones‘The development has been a mess, marked by a lack of clear direction, balloon costs and tons of attrition. With Ubisoft Singapore at the helm, the project began as an expansion for the 2013s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag before they evolved into half a dozen other types of games during the nearly decade ago.
Read more: The cluttered, stuck inventory of An Assassin’s Creed co-developer
Despite continued statements from Ubisoft’s management the game has gone well, the delays and wear and tear continue, in addition alleged tumult and misdemeanor on his main study. Skull and bones lost an associate game director In December. Other senior designers and writers have also recently traveled. The game lost its latest producer just a few months ago.
According to two sources familiar with the game’s development, Ubisoft had hoped to launch Skull and bones already in the spring. That date was later pushed back to the summer and then to September. However, there is increasing pressure to ship the game, which some sources believe has cost Ubisoft over $ 200 million at this point, in part due to an existing agreement with the Singapore government.
Ubisoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but did acknowledge the leak in a tweet Friday teases an official upcoming unveiling of the restarted project.
As a live service game, Skull and bones is expected to continue to grow and evolve even after it is released. But previous developers associated with the project Kotaku have talked to are skeptical that it could deliver anything close to what the publisher or players might expect at this point. ONE reddit post where the footage was shared is filled with comments that simply ask Ubisoft to make another Black flag instead.