A couple of days ago we published our review of Skull and Bones. We did it honestly and realistically. The game is much better than many believed and the potential is tremendous. However, the game has not managed to convince players in its first week.
According to a new report from InsiderGaming, Skull & Bones has not managed to surpass one million players, and currently has around 850,000. Obviously, this is not a very high number for a game of this kind.
Obviously, it is not a negligible figure, but it is much less impressive when you consider that it includes players who have been testing the game through its 8-hour free trial version, and it is supposed to be the number of players of the game on all platforms.
We still don’t know how many players are paid
At the moment, it is unknown how many of those who have played the free trial will become paying customers, although Ubisoft has not given it the best opportunity.
According to one of the sources from InsiderGaming, one of the main reasons for the lack of players is the $70 price of the game, which Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, recently defended because Skull & Bones is a “quadruple A” game.
This price has been heavily criticized by both fans and critics, but it seems that internally as well. A Ubisoft employee who spoke with InsiderGaming said that “we all know that it’s a game worth between 30 and 40 dollars at best”, but aspects like the price of a game “are not under our control”.
Skull & Bones has many live service elements, and asking players to shell out 70 dollars just to be able to get in can be too many dollars.
However, there is a glimmer of hope and an opportunity for Ubisoft to change things and reverse the game’s fate. According to this report, those who play Skull & Bones do so for an average of three to four hours a day, which means that engagement is quite high.
It seems like once players are in, they get hooked. It’s unlikely that Skull & Bones will switch to a free-to-play model now that people have spent their money, but the launch of Game Pass could give it the push it needs before it’s too late.
