Quadruple-A Liar Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot Claims Upcoming Skull and Bones is a “Quadruple-A” Title to Justify $60 Price

When it comes to misrepresenting a videogame there have been some noticeable examples of this. From No Man’s Sky, to Aliens: Colonial Marines, and SimCity (2013), the industry has seen many such cases come about to the detriment of gamers. But no company comes close to being consistent in lying about their products in order to make a sale as Ubisoft. This time, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot’s newest ploy to divest consumers of their hard-earned money is to say that Ubisoft’s upcoming Skull and Bones title  is worth the $60 price tag because it is a “quadruple-A” game.

Guillemot’s explanation for the game’s price tag was delivered to investors in a meeting where he said,

“You will see that Skull and Bones is a full-fledged game. It’s a very big game and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. So it’s a really full triple-A, quadruple-A game that will deliver in the long run.”

To be blunt, Guillemot is a quadruple-A liar when it comes to his track record. Time and time again he has lied to consumers whether it was about removing always-online DRM from a game like R.U.S.E., which turned out to be false when the game was released, to using DRM to “combat piracy,” lying again about DRM in From Dust, and especially claiming that the company would do away with always-on DRM only to release their own digital distribution platform which is always-on DRM (though the platform does have an offline mode for some games). 

So what does Skull and Bones offer to consumers? It’s an open world, action-adventure title that features piracy and naval battles on a map that is 261 square miles large. Players will be able to collect ships, customize their vessels, weapons, and even customize their NPC’s outfits.  

For those familiar with the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which has taken a real beating over the years, Skull and Bones is more like a spinoff from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag that has been touted to take all the best parts of Black Flag and put it all into a standalone experience. Except that this is a live-service game that doesn’t have land battles or even ship-to-ship battles that would involve boarding another player’s ship and fighting to take it over. Instead, it is just a naval battle “simulator” from a third-person perspective in which boarding is an automated scenario.

In essence, this sounds like a gimped version of Microsoft’s own open word, action adventure Sea of Thieves pirate game which is still going strong. 

Considering that Skull and Bones has been in development for around 11 years, and has gone through a plethora of game directions, there is a lot for gamers to be concerned about. Whether or not there will be bugs and glitches due to underlying code being rewritten or built upon, to a lack of focus on the gameplay and longevity of the game. There just doesn’t sound like there is enough gameplay-wise and content-wise to keep gamers interested long term.

What little there is to the game, makes it sound more like a $30 mid-tier game with a bloated budget considering how lackluster it sounds.

Looking at the game’s development history, it appears that Ubisoft has wasted around $120 million which makes Skull and Bones’ $60 price tag seem like more of an act of desperation to recoup their losses from shill fans of the developer and the ignorant consumer. Not to mention the baked-in live-services replete with battle passes, in-game store, and game currency to fleece consumers even further.

Suffice to say, Skull and Bones does not look like a quadruple-A or even a triple-A title. But Yves Guillemot is a quadruple-A liar when it comes to selling Ubisoft products. More so when the company’s stock price is at an abysmal $4.86 per stock even though Tencent bought a minority stake in Ubisoft a year ago. Not to mention that Skull and Bones was subsidized by the Singaporean government. 

Buyer beware! Though, ideally, you should boycott Skull and ones. Hell, you should be boycotting Ubisoft completely.

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