Facepalm: Skull and Bones, the pirate sim that Ubisoft thinks is so good it’s worth a $70 console price tag and a “AAAA” designation, currently has the lowest user score on Metacritic for a game released in 2024 thus far. Even the near-universally disliked Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has a higher user score than the title that took a decade to develop.
At the time of writing, 306 people have given their opinion on Skull and Bones via Metacritic. Unfortunately for Ubisoft, 222 of them, or 73%, have been negative, while 27 (9%) are mixed.
Skull and Bones’ user score of 2.9 makes it the worst-reviewed game by user score released in 2024 to date, lower even than Suicide Squad’s score of 3.7. Its critic reviews are only slightly better: Skull and Bones currently sits at an unimpressive 64, putting it in 30th place out of the 36 games launched in 2024 to date.
Many of the user comments reflect the ‘Dull and Bones’ name that some players have started calling Ubisoft’s title. One person said it’s painfully slow and boring with none of the fun that made Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag so enjoyable. There are also plenty of mocking references to the game’s high price and the now infamous “AAAA” statement.
“So, this trash is what constitutes a ‘quadruple AAAA’ game these days is it? What a complete waste of a decide [sic] of development time. I managed to endure just under 90 minutes of this dog toilet **** before uninstalling it and loading up Black Flag,” wrote one angry Metacritic user. “It is so boring! For a game about pirates, you sure can’t do much pirating stuff.”
As a reminder, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot at the start of the month defended Skull and Bones’ $70 price tag (for the console versions) by insisting it was a “quadruple-A” game. The hubris came during a conference call Q&A session that took place after Ubisoft’s Q3 fiscal year 2024 results where he was asked if making Skull and Bones free-to-play would have been a better option, given its live service approach.
Skull and Bones’ launch was delayed six times following the original reveal at E3 in 2017 – initial work on the game began back in 2013. It’s also reported to have gone over budget and cost around $200 million, not to mention the number of management changes, shifts in game direction, etc. Ubisoft will no doubt be hoping it can build a player base and improve the experience à la Fallout 76 or No Man’s Sky, but it has a lot of work to do and a plenty of people to convince before getting to that point.
