Ubisoft has stated the lately launched Skull and Bones has achieved “file participant engagement” since launch, though it has but to announce what number of copies it’s bought or what number of gamers it has.
In a notice to press saying the pirate sport’s first season, Ubisoft stated Skull and Bones has over 4 hours of common every day playtime, which is the second highest ever on the firm.
But what does this imply, precisely? And not using a gross sales determine or month-to-month lively person (MAU) or every day lively person (DAU) numbers, it’s inconceivable to inform how properly Skull and Bones has completed. Skull and Bones just isn’t on Steam, both, so we don’t have Valve’s official participant concurrents monitoring to assist paint an image. But from Ubisoft’s assertion we are able to glean that those that are enjoying Skull and Bones are placing within the hours. It’s value noting Skull and Bones launched with an eight-hour free trial, providing gamers the prospect to check the waters earlier than leaping in with a $70 buy.
What we do know for positive is the variety of individuals enjoying Murderer’s Creed 4: Black Flag rose 200% on Steam after the discharge of Skull and Bones, in accordance to monitoring web site SteamDB. Black Flag’s quantity spiked on February 16: the day Skull and Bones lastly launched after years of troubled growth.
Introduced in 2017, Skull and Bones initially appeared set to present gamers with extra of what made Black Flag so standard: intense and dramatic ocean adventuring and fight. Six delays seemingly brought on pleasure to dwindle, nevertheless, and Skull and Bones lastly arrived in 2024 to little fanfare. “Skull and Bones is a maritime RPG with a robust basis, even when it seems like a live-service first draft,” IGN stated in our 7/10 assessment.
In the meantime, Season 1, dubbed Raging Tides, sees gamers “embark on a dangerous journey in opposition to the vicious Pirate Lord Philippe La Peste and his legendary pirate ship, La Potence”, Ubisoft stated. “From dominating a Legendary Pirate Lord and World Occasions to rising an empire, this primary addition to the post-launch plan indicators the beginning of an exhilarating journey on the excessive seas.”
Right here’s the checklist of recent content material coming to Skull and Bones with Season 1 Raging Tides:
- Tides of Terror: More and more troublesome seasonal occasions the place gamers will battle in opposition to La Peste’s Fleet of Pestilence. Gamers will ultimately go in opposition to him in a World Occasion, culminating in a ultimate showdown the place they are going to hunt down his base of operations, the Blighted Bastion, for an epic battle.
- New World Occasions: Gamers will encounter Elite Warships from megacorporations just like the DMC (Opwelling), and native factions just like the Clan of Fara (Mizerja). Service provider Convoys carrying high-value loot may even be current alongside commerce routes within the Indian Ocean.
- New Bounties: Player can choose up bounties main them to terrifying legends such because the mysterious Ghost Ship (Rode Maangodin) that haunts the Open Seas, or the terrifying Sea Monster (Zamaharibu) that awaits unsuspecting pirates within the depths.
- New Leaderboard rewards: Larger-tier weapons and gear. Seasonal Smuggler Move: Three free tracks enable gamers to purchase new gameplay objects and blueprints to additional optimize and customise their ship’s loadout. There may even be free cosmetics from captain and ship beauty units to assets and Items of Eight. The Premium move additionally provides further cosmetics and Gold premium forex.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.