The lead designer and associate game director of Skull & Bones, Antoine Henry, left Ubisoft Singapore after working with Ubisoft for 15 years. This further reinforces the notion that this project started by Ubisoft in 2013 is truly cursed.
According to Kotaku’s investigation. The development of Skull & Bones initially started as an expansion for 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Then the game became a spin-off MMO set in the Black Flag universe. And then it became Skull & Bones, a new IP focusing on naval battles in a multiplayer sandbox. And after being announced at e3 2017, the game has now been delayed 4 times. From the late 2018 release date to March 2023.
Anonymous sources at Ubisoft Singapore reported that the project is getting nearly annual reboots and refreshes internally. The title is reportedly suffering from a lack of clear vision, power struggles within the company, and constant reshuffling of the team working on it.
And now Antoine Henry is bidding farewell to the team after working on the game as a lead designer since 2014. “Goodbye Ubisoft! After nearly 15 years, today was my last day. I’m thankful for the people I’ve met and what they brought me professionally and personally. Hopefully, I was able to give back a little bit. On to new exciting adventures very soon,” shared Antoine in his LinkedIn post.
Speaking of Henry’s LinkedIn. It is interesting to see that he worked on the game from 2014 to 2018. But then suddenly, Henry was put to work on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and its expansion for 3 years. Before returning to Skull & Bones in 2021, and then finally quitting near the end of the year. This would suggest that Ubisoft put Skull & Bones on their backburner for 3 whole years.
Any other company would drop the game 10 times over by now. Ubisoft would probably love to drop it too. Except that they cannot. Since they struck a deal with the Singapore government. Ubisoft was given significant subsidies by Singapore. And as part of this deal, they are expected to release an original IP with Ubisoft Singapore as lead developers. If Ubisoft backpedals on their word, there will be consequences.
So now Skull & Bones lead designer left. Its development is a tragic 9-year-old story, with no end of calamities coming their way. At this point, fans of the promised gameplay should keep their expectations low. And they should definitely arm themselves to the teeth with patience.
