Is Skull and Bones too expensive even though it’s AAAA? Obviously, things are changing and not everything is going as planned on the Anglo-Saxon market.
Less than three weeks after its launch, Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones game has seen its price considerably reduced, especially on the Anglo-Saxon market. Originally going on sale on February 16 for $69.99 (and the British pound equivalent), the title underwent a series of delays and a complete overhaul in 2020 before finally hitting the market.
Skull and Bones and the price drop
However, it didn’t take long for the price drop to become apparent. Our colleagues at videogameschronicle report, for example, Best Buy now offers the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions at $44.99, while British retailer Hit offers them at £49.85. This significant reduction raises questions, especially since Ubisoft had initially defended the game’s high price by emphasizing its large scale and game-service ambitions. As a reminder, this is a game that is described as being AAAA.
During a financial results conference call preceding the release of Skull and Bones, Ubisoft justified the $70 price tag by arguing that the game deserved that full price due to its scale. Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, said: “ You will see that Skull and Bones is a complete game. It’s a really big game, and we think people will see how big and comprehensive it is. It’s a truly accomplished game, an AAA game, which will keep its promises in the long term. »
France does not seem too concerned
Ubisoft accompanied the launch of Skull and Bones with an eight-hour free trial, available on all platforms, allowing players to transfer their progress to the full game if they decide to purchase it. This still seems to indicate that the game is not necessarily the success expected by the French-speaking publisher…
Although Skull and Bones was intended to be Ubisoft’s first game sold at $70, delays meant that the first game sold at that price was Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora last December, which also saw its price quickly dropping to $49.99/£43.85 within weeks of release. On the other hand, in our country, where tax is king, the price seems to have changed little. And this at all major retailers like Fnac, Micromania, Amazon and Carrefour. Will it be different in the future?