Ubisoft Explains Why Skull & Bones Isn't Just An Assassin's Creed Spinoff

Gamers who watched the events unfold at this year's E3 were some of the first to catch a glimpse of Ubisoft's upcoming Skull & Bones, a game centered around seafaring pirates in some ship-on-ship combat. While the new IP looked promising, many players with a background in Ubisoft's games noticed some similarities between the game and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, but the gaming company assures players that this new pirate game is not at all intended to be a spinoff of Black Flag.

That's not to say that the game didn't draw influence from Black Flag, something that would've been unavoidable given the two games both coming from Ubisoft. But according to an interview between Ubisoft Singapore and GameSpot, the creators of the game laid out their reasons for creating a new IP instead of a DLC or other spinoff of the popular series that the game could've easily ridden off of.

"After Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, [we wanted] to stay in the pirate fantasy and to make it bigger and stronger," said Olivier de Rotalier the managing director of Ubisoft Singapore.

But even though they looked to stay within the world of pirates that Black Flag had built up, there were certain advantages that could be enjoyed by moving away from the Assassin's Creed universe.

"We didn't want the limits – creating a new IP gives you the chance to do whatever you want," said Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft. "It's a way to get more freedom."

Apparently, the freedom that was permitted in the game worked out for Ubisoft well now that their upcoming game has attracted quite large audience, much bigger than the game developers had initially suspected. Guillemot added that more players have shown interest in this game than any other previous Ubisoft IP that's been revealed.

The game leans heavily on some multiplayer-based combat where players take on their opponents' fleets, blasting them with cannons while gathering loot to invest back into their ships. More recently, it was also revealed that the game would feature a single-player story mode to go along with the PvP action.

Skull & Bones is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2018 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

[via GameSpot]