Skull & Bones: Ubisoft Reportedly Rebooting Pirate Game

A report suggests that Ubisoft is rebooting its pirate IP Skull & Bones, which will now follow a "live" game model with ongoing storytelling inspired by Fortnite. Development sources told VGC that the game "had been struggling to carve itself a unique position among Ubisoft's existing portfolio of open-world games", leading the team to apparently reboot Skull & Bones last year, shifting away from "the premium box model" used by most of Ubisoft's AAA franchises like Assassin's Creed and The Division. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/06/20/23-minutes-of-skull-and-bones-gameplay-in-4k-e3-2018"] According to the report, the rebooted Skull & Bones will feature "a persistent game world with quests, characters and storylines that will drastically evolve and change over time based on the collective actions of the community." The team behind Skull & Bones, which is also now reportedly being led by XIII writer/director Elisabeth Pellen, have been heavily inspired by Fortnite's success with "live storytelling." Skull & Bones was revealed during E3 2017 but was delayed until "2019-20" in early 2018, then delayed again in 2019, with no planned release date as of writing. In early 2019, Ubisoft unveiled a collaboration with Atlas Entertainment to create a TV show based on the game, a "female-driven drama set in the lawless frontier of the Indian Ocean at the end of the golden age of piracy in the 1700s.” [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.