After what may feel like forever, Ubisoft has re-revealed Skull and Bones, as well as the new vision for the game. It has undergone several iterations since its initial reveal, but fans are looking at a naval combat-focused open-world pirate game. Players will begin as a lowly shipwreck survivor and build their way up to a kingpin of the seas. Ubisoft recently showed off Skull and Bones' release date and gameplay, as well as revealing several new details about the game.

Game Rant was recently able to sit down with Skull and Bones game director Ryan Barnard, where we talked about the ships, the pirate elements of the game world, the narrative at hand, and more. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Q: How many styles of ships are there?

A: The ships in the game are broken into basically categories. There are three categories. There's cargo, navigation, and firepower. And then within those, there are a few sizes for launch. We'll have small and medium ships. And then the ship you start out with, which is actually like our extra small ship, the Dhow is kind of the hunter-gatherer ship where you have the spear and everything.

The first bigger ships where you can put the weapons and armors on are the small ships, and yeah, they're in those three different categories. Obviously, cargo, you can carry more, but there's a trade-off. They're like the slowest ships, they're harder to maneuver. They're about medium in firepower capability. Navigation are very fast. They're very agile, but you give up in both other categories with cargo and firepower. And then, of course, the firepower ships, they're going to be the heaviest damage dealing ships. But again, they're not the highest in cargo or maneuverability, so each one of the categories has some pros and cons.

skull and bones red flag

Q: How many ships can players manage at once? Are they limited to one, or can they go between categories?

A: Well, what we want is the players to build them all, we want you to have your fleet eventually unlocked through the progression, which we call Infamy. But at launch, there'll be 12 ships that you can craft, but you can craft up to 40 different copies of those chips. Because you may end up you know, maybe losing a ship in combat or PvP or whatever. So, it's always good to have backup in your garage, so to speak, ready to go. But there are 12 unique ship types for launch.

Q: Could you tell me how the Golden Age of Piracy influenced the game world?

A: Sure, so Elizabeth Pellen, our creative director, when she came on about three and a half years ago, that was the big shift to go from, let's say kind of more of an arena, combat PvP oriented game to something that could be a new kind of reimagined, grittier pirate experience. This time period was pretty brutal, right? It was, it was very cutthroat, very harsh. It's not the Disney Jonny Depp, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean in reality.

That's definitely the inspiration for Skull and Bones. We are grittier and more adult type of harsh environment that we have for the player, which feeds into the survival aspects of the game, the crafting, you know, collecting everything that you can around you as you're playing. It’s definitely the inspiration and the seed, but we are not a, you know, historical simulator in any way.

We took the parts that could give us great inspiration for this region in the area of the Indian Ocean and used the things that are great for games and great for gameplay, and elements that didn't really fit or make a lot of sense are just not in the game.

Q: With that in mind, will players be seeing any historical figures like Calico Jack or Blackbeard?

A: So, you may see amalgamations of historical pirates, right? Like some great pirate traits. But again, we're not we're inspired by history, so there isn't any named pirates, like from history, so to speak. But you might see pirates that remind you if you are familiar with the pirates of that age.

Skull and Bones

Q: And what about Pirate mythology? IF I recall correctly, there was a Kraken in a showcase a long time ago, so is there any pirate mythology still present in the game?

A: There was a Kraken in there, yeah. With Ubisoft, one of our big strengths that we pride ourselves on is this idea of doing our research, sharing, and making sure that our games are grounded and plausible. But of course, we want to entertain, you know, the pirate genre and see where we can push it. So, we're not to the point of a Kraken or anything yet, but who knows, you know, it's a live game, and we intend to support the game for years to come and depending on engaging with our community, where they want to go and where we want to go, who knows what we'll end up adding to the game.

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Q: Generally speaking, how big is the open sea compared to like Black Flag?

A: Yeah, that's a great question. So, if you can picture it, Valhalla, which just released, a great big open world Assassins game, is 95 square kilometers of gameplay space. At launch, we are 625 square kilometers.

It’s quite a big game world for players to explore. Now, of course, we're a vehicle game. It's a ship game. You need a bigger space to be able to accommodate that. We're also a very big multiplayer first game. So, we want players to pirate up and group up with other players. And you need, you know, a good amount of space for that to make sense for gameplay. But there's a huge world for you to explore and to discover the different factions, the two different dens which are kind of our two pirate villages that you'll discover through your progression of the game. And as you basically become, you know, a kingpin in the game from just a survivor kind of an outcast at the beginning of the game.

Q: How many factions are there in the game?

A: What we're talking about here is we have three, like what we call big corporations, which are the French, the Dutch, and the British. But you will discover very quickly that there are many local factions that you will come across, you know, as you explore the world, and those I don't think we're talking about quite yet.

But there are quite a few factions, and the great thing about what we're doing with those is each faction will present the player with a new type of technology or design, which will present a new challenge that they need to grow their Infamy, so they can get these blueprints or these designs. As you progress through the world you meet, you know, basically different types of challenges, harder types of enemies, and you need to outfit your ships with different customizations in order to be successful as you pirate those new factions.

skull and bones fort battle

Q: I get the impression that we're not going to be on land very much. Is that true?

A: Well, I mean there is a large land component to the game. The only thing that we're not on land for is combat. That's where you do your crafting, it's where you make deals with the other pirates, which we call contracts. It's where you create your ships, where you create your weapons and craft those things, where you can trade with other players, socialize, and group up. You can do those at any of the dens or outposts that you'll discover throughout the world, and there are many outposts. So, the only thing you're not doing on land is fighting.

Q: Naval combat is the core experience of the game, but how many other gameplay experiences should someone expect? Is Naval combat like 50%, 90%?

A: It's hard to put an exact percentage on it. We are a naval combat-focused pirate game. A lot of what you're doing depends on what you choose to do, because you can also trade with the different factions. We really want choice to be a big part of the game. It's all about risk and reward as a pirate.

But naval combat has been a common thread throughout the development of the game, and having the best in class naval combat is a goal for us. You know, making sure that it's easy to pick up, it's intuitive, but there's depth to it. There's a variation with what you load out your ships with, it's really going to be something that's unique out there, in this genre, for sure.

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But it's hard to put a number on it. It kind of depends on what you want to do, you can do a lot of exploration, you could follow treasure maps that you find, you could be trying to do trade or small missions with the factions at the outpost, or you can be just a high seas pirate and spend most of your time hunting down merchants on trade routes and taking them out for their loot, and plundering the settlements and the forts that you come across. And that's, you know, obviously, mainly combat, so we're definitely, you know, very combat-focused and really want to make that excellent. But really, it's up to you on how you want to spend your time.

Q: How much of a typical story is in the game, or is it all through the Infamy progression?

A: Yeah, it's good question. As you probably gleaned from that, we're not Assassin's Creed. We're not Far Cry. There isn't a huge, long storyline that you complete and then, you know, the game’s over, roll credits.

We're definitely not a narrative game that way, but you will meet key figures, kingpins, and other Pirates in the game, which will have storylines built in that you can do by doing jobs for them. They'll uncover some of the, let's say, deeper story that we're telling with the game overall. There definitely is a narrative and in there is a story. Each one of the pirates you meet has a backstory, they have stuff they want to do, and there are some of the factions that are at war with each other. There are lots of stories to interact with there, but it's not a narrative-driven game. We really want the players to kind of create their own narrative as they grow into a kingpin.

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Skull and Bones releases November 8 for PC, PS5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X.

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