Ubisoft's pirate game Skull and Bones continues to be MIA, despite being formally announced three years ago and initially having a 2018 release. Reports that the game has being having a turbulent development would explain the delay and now it's just lost its managing director.
Hughes Ricour, the managing director of Ubisoft Singapore (the studio responsible for Skull and Bones), has reportedly been removed from the position following a leadership audit. The news comes from an internal company email sent out by Virginie Haas, Ubisoft's chief studios operating officer; one which Kotaku was able to obtain.
"Effective immediately, Hugues Ricour is no longer Managing Director of Ubisoft Singapore. The results of the leadership audit that was conducted in the last few weeks by our external partners makes it impossible for him to continue in this position."
While it isn't stated why Ricour has been removed, this does follow an investigation into workplace abuse conducted by Gamasutra back in August. According to Gamasutra's sources, Ricour was guilty of sexual harassment, making inappropriate comments about women employees' clothing and encouraging them to kiss him at events. Kotaku's sources have also corroborated these claims.
The investigation was conducted in the wake of a string of similar accusations being directed at Ubisoft, which began back in the summer and led to a number of employees being suspended, fired, or leaving the company, including chief creative officer Serge Hascoet and PR director Stone Chin. It was during this time that Haas took over the chief studios operating officer position.
It's not clear yet whether Ricour has just been removed from his role or if he has been fired from Ubisoft entirely, but the email adds that Ubisoft Singapore’s director of operations, Matthew Thorpe, and human resources director, Debbie Lee, will "ensure a smooth transition" and a town hall will address employee questions concerning Ricour's removal.
Ricour wasn't only involved with Skull and Bones either. He was overseeing numerous other Ubisoft projects and co-produced titles in the Assassin's Creed series (the latest, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, has released to critical acclaim) and the upcoming Immortals Fenyx Rising.
What effect this will have on Skull and Bones isn't known yet. After all, there have been no real updates on the game's development in a long time. The most recent bit of news came from a report which claimed that Ubisoft had decided to reboot the game and switch over to a live-service model.
Despite enjoying successes with Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs Legion, this year has not been good for Ubisoft. The aforementioned sexual harassment allegations certainly mired the company's reputation and it has faced backlash for other reasons too.
For example, in August, its Elite Squad mobile game was accused of co-opting Black Lives Matter imagery and used it for the game's villains, essentially (inadvertently or not) portraying the movement as a terrorist organization.
Skull and Bones is in development for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.