The CEO of Ubisoft is fully confident in the inflation of video game prices—even in troubled times for both Ubisoft and the wallets of much of the planet. Yves Guillemot doubled down on the decision to give open-world online-multiplayer pirate RPG Skull and Bones a $70 price tag.
One caller questioned the decision to take up the $70 price tag, noting its drift towards a live-service approach. They were concerned that it would limit the player base, as opposed to a free-to-play game with optional add-ons, also known as a “freemium” approach.
“You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game,” he answered, via Video Game Chronicle. “It’s a very big game, and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. It’s a really full, triple… quadruple-A game, that will deliver in the long run.”
$70 is the new price tier for “AAA games,” the upper echelon of games that continues to chase promises with mixed results. At least there’s a better diversity of price points, though, including Palworld for $30 or $40 for the single-player Plague Tale games upon launch, and many indie games launch for far cheaper.
In this case, maybe the $70 is to make up for a ton of lost time, given it had to refund Playstation preorders due to massive delays and, over time, lost three creative directors. Obviously, we trust Ubisoft with good choices, right?
The open beta for Skull and Bones started this week with progression carrying over; the full game releases February 16th, and those who buy the $99.99 tier get in three days early.
