Ubisoft has said the recently released Skull and Bones has achieved “record player engagement” since launch, although it has yet to announce how many copies it’s sold or how many players it has.
Ubisoft has said the recently released Skull and Bones has achieved “record player engagement” since launch, although it has yet to announce how many copies it’s sold or how many players it has.
I’m assuming the vagueness of the phrase “record player engagement” means it has a lot more to do with engagement with whatever microtransaction they have going than engagement with the game itself.
The game had an 8-hour free trial. That would drive the “engagement” they’re talking about, and I’m guessing it’s the only positive news they have. If the game was selling well or had significant daily active users, they’d be talking about that instead.
“I mean, the three people still playing it are reeeealy playing it, you know? They engaged in our game like no other! Record player engagement everybody!”
User accidentally opens Uplay when trying to double-click Steam
A store banner ad shows ‘Skull and Bones’
User immediately frowns in disgust and tries to spam the X button to quit Uplay
Uplay privacy-invading telemetry captures an image of the user frowning via the webcam, and tracks the movement of the mouse cursor moving across the banner ad of ‘Skull and Bones’
Uplay closes, telemetry is uploaded to Ubisoft’s servers
We’re pushing AAAA gaming forward, to grow our fledgling AAAA Gamer-base! We are excited to introduce AAAA-as-a-Service. We think you’re gonna love our AAAAaS.
Stay tuned in 2032, when we launch our connected AAAA-as-a-Service-Subscription! Now you’ll be able to get ground-breaking AAAAaSS gaming at an affordable value. Paid subscribers will get even more checklists, even more overwhelming map icons, and an even larger empty world with no payoff to explore to complete in our games! Do you love going here and pressing the A button? What if you could complete those map markers while not only pressing the A button to end the mission, but instead, having to swipe your credit card while timing the press of the A button? We feel this rewarding challenge will introduce a sense of pride and accomplishment in gamers, and introduce more money in our coffers.
Gamers:
Dude, just create new innovative games with new IPs that aren’t monetized to hell! We’ll buy those! We miss the old Splinter Cell days.
Uibsoft:
MoNeTiZaTiOn, you say??!! Splinter Cell as a Service, you say?! We hear you loud and clear!
The different school in 8 months after Skull and Bones launch:
Our curriculum isn’t doing well. This is not the curriculum we wanted to deliver. Players expect better, yada yada yada, you know the usual school’s apology stuff. We need to lay off 100% of teachers so as to realign, synergize, refocus, retool, and remoney our money-making money curriculum disguised as a “game”. We will do better. We hear you loud and clear (kind of), and we probably learned a lesson of some kind.
I know dozens of people who wanted this game because they really loved the ship combat in Black Flag but substituted Sea of Thieves as it was the only close game out at the time. These are the kinds of people who buy games on a whim, play them for a week and then never again.
Not a single one of them gives a single flying fuck about Skull and Bones. In fact, when it was released everybody had a revived interest in playing Sea of Thieves instead.
Skull and Bones made me want to play a pirate game, but everything points to it being just a worse Black Flag. That’s why last week I bought Sea of Thieves and have been enjoying it quite a bit.
You also have the benefit of years of development for SoT that has brought features, QoL improvements, and invite-only servers.
Originally the game was very super pvp oriented and there was no way for you to get out of the open world. A few years months ago they implemented private invite-only servers where the reward amount was reduced but it allowed players a secluded area to focus on their own thing instead of worrying about being harassed by a maxed out galleon crew coming after them.
It’s actually a really fun game overall, even when you’re fighting people. I used to roleplay as a pirate, and our ship was called the Salty Swallow.
“You’ll never forget your encounter with the crew of the Salty Swallow! Arrrrrrr!”
And then the whole crew dies, because we’re all bad.
Damn I had to stop playing because I am not a fan of PvP especially when is on a shitty old 940mx laptop that straight up freezes every minute. Can anyone create a private server for friends or do I have to self host it? Guessing it’s the former but looks like it’s worth another try anyway.
Could very well be that recent. It’s been a while since I played and paid attention to the development and happenings of the game.
Either way, it was something we’d been asking for since the start of the game, and I’m really happy new players get to experience it right out of the box!
Didn’t the latest shitty Call of Duty try basically this exact tactic? They cited some sort of record high in player engagement with the campaign, because if you torture statistics hard enough you can make them say anything.
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12 people is a record!
Record High! For Ubisoft! On a Thursday! Between the hours of 11am and 12pm! Sparkling white wine for everyone!
I’m assuming the vagueness of the phrase “record player engagement” means it has a lot more to do with engagement with whatever microtransaction they have going than engagement with the game itself.
if they had actual sales or revenue to brag about, they would have.
The game had an 8-hour free trial. That would drive the “engagement” they’re talking about, and I’m guessing it’s the only positive news they have. If the game was selling well or had significant daily active users, they’d be talking about that instead.
“I mean, the three people still playing it are reeeealy playing it, you know? They engaged in our game like no other! Record player engagement everybody!”
Another Assasscreek?
User accidentally opens Uplay when trying to double-click Steam
A store banner ad shows ‘Skull and Bones’
User immediately frowns in disgust and tries to spam the X button to quit Uplay
Uplay privacy-invading telemetry captures an image of the user frowning via the webcam, and tracks the movement of the mouse cursor moving across the banner ad of ‘Skull and Bones’
Uplay closes, telemetry is uploaded to Ubisoft’s servers
Ubisoft:
There aren’t many AAAA gamers out there I suppose
Ubisoft in 2031:
Gamers:
Uibsoft:
Collect 3,000 cells in this wide open world to collect your skins.
Buy 4,000 cells to get this custom pirate skin for your character.
Of all the self labeled AAAA games, this is easily the best, no contest.
No contest on account of there only being one.
You wouldn’t know the players, they go to a different school.
The different school in 8 months after Skull and Bones launch:
From now on, I’m going to tack that to the end of every game studio announcement I read, just to see how it fits.
I know dozens of people who wanted this game because they really loved the ship combat in Black Flag but substituted Sea of Thieves as it was the only close game out at the time. These are the kinds of people who buy games on a whim, play them for a week and then never again.
Not a single one of them gives a single flying fuck about Skull and Bones. In fact, when it was released everybody had a revived interest in playing Sea of Thieves instead.
Skull and Bones made me want to play a pirate game, but everything points to it being just a worse Black Flag. That’s why last week I bought Sea of Thieves and have been enjoying it quite a bit.
You also have the benefit of years of development for SoT that has brought features, QoL improvements, and invite-only servers.
Originally the game was very super pvp oriented and there was no way for you to get out of the open world. A few
yearsmonths ago they implemented private invite-only servers where the reward amount was reduced but it allowed players a secluded area to focus on their own thing instead of worrying about being harassed by a maxed out galleon crew coming after them.It’s actually a really fun game overall, even when you’re fighting people. I used to roleplay as a pirate, and our ship was called the Salty Swallow.
“You’ll never forget your encounter with the crew of the Salty Swallow! Arrrrrrr!”
And then the whole crew dies, because we’re all bad.
Damn I had to stop playing because I am not a fan of PvP especially when is on a shitty old 940mx laptop that straight up freezes every minute. Can anyone create a private server for friends or do I have to self host it? Guessing it’s the former but looks like it’s worth another try anyway.
It’s all hosted through Xbox servers still, so you just pick it as a game setting and away you go!
I believe the private session you’re referring to was only implemented somewhere last year, no?
Could very well be that recent. It’s been a while since I played and paid attention to the development and happenings of the game.
Either way, it was something we’d been asking for since the start of the game, and I’m really happy new players get to experience it right out of the box!
The amount of limits on it is ridiculous though 😔. No voyages, no captain of my own ship. No nothing 🥺
God i love Sea of Thieves. But others have absolutely ruined it for me… I just wanna fish and do voyages… 🥺
I engage with my record player everyday. It plays wonderful music.
Typical corpo horseshit. The game is a failure. If it wasn’t, that would be the news.
Didn’t the latest shitty Call of Duty try basically this exact tactic? They cited some sort of record high in player engagement with the campaign, because if you torture statistics hard enough you can make them say anything.
Same with Starfield. Biggest launch ever!! Well yeah no shit Sherlock it was free on gamepass for like 30 million people lol
Note they just say record, not record high…
I can’t believe I played a black flag that is over 10 years old and is better in most ways, sometimes even in graphics.
Record engagement for a game named skull and bones.
“Highest sales ever! (for a 2024 release pirate video game)”
*released by Ubisoft