Ubisoft Singapore's upcoming pirate-adventure Skull and Bones has quite the fan hype surrounding it, with no certain release date at the time of writing. Fans are eagerly awaiting any updates regarding the game's development or release date, which could be announced now that Ubisoft will be present at this year's E3.
While fans may be busy speculating about the different facets of Skull and Bones' gameplay, Ubisoft's choice of release platforms seems strange for a multitude of reasons. There's plenty of merit to a cross-generation release, but there's an even greater case for Skull and Bones to skip PS4 and Xbox One in favor of a next-gen-only release.
The Deep Blue Sea
Skull and Bones is touted to be set in a vast and expansive Indian Ocean, where players get to choose whether to engage in a single-player campaign, or cause mayhem with friends. Ubisoft is no stranger to developing big open worlds, and the developer/publisher has already proven itself multiple times this generation with titles such as Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and Valhalla.
However, that's not to say that rendering huge and highly detailed worlds come at no additional cost. There's a lot of work required to make games of such a scale work properly on such dated hardware, and failure to do so can be disastrous at worst, as evidenced by the release of Cyberpunk 2077. While that's not to state that Skull and Bones may be treading the same road, but it'd be quite better with more resources dedicated to other aspects of the game like characters and additional gameplay possibilities.
Skull and Bones Cross-Gen Might Not Make Sense
Skull and Bones' initial reveal trailer was shown off to the public during E3 2017, which was almost four years ago. The initial release date of 2018 did warrant a PS4/Xbox One release, but a lot has changed since then. The game has been delayed multiple times now, the first being a short delay to 2019, and the next one being an indefinite delay as the developers require more time to fully realize the "vision" of the game.
At the time of writing, it's been over five months since the release of the next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. There's been a global shortage of consoles due to the pandemic and the global shortage of hardware components, due to which many fans haven't been able to pick a console up yet. While the shortages are expected to continue going into this year, there's little to no doubt that Ubisoft might have plans for bringing Skull and Bones to next-gen consoles. Fans who managed to snag a next-gen machine have made it their platform of choice, and would most likely purchase the game for that next-gen platform.
While there's little to no information about when Skull and Bones might be released, console shortages might be resolved over time as a huge chunk of players transition to next-gen gaming. All things considered, it could mean more loss than gain if Skull and Bones remains adamant about its cross-gen release structure.
Skull and Bones is in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.