AC Black Flag's Potential Was Squandered For Skull And Bones

screenrant.com:

The long-gestating pirate action game Skull and Bones is finally on the horizon, but it may not be the successor to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag that audiences had hoped for. In the five years since the game's reveal (and nine since it began development), it has pivoted from its original premise as a follow-up to the popular 2013 Ubisoft title to something completely different. The pirate theme is still alive, but major changes in the game's design philosophy and intended experience have taken root amidst numerous delays and uncertainty during Skull and Bones' development. Now, Skull and Bones is entirely its own beast.

When Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag sailed onto the scene in 2013, it was quietly followed by the beginning of Skull and Bones's development. It was originally intended as an add-on or spin-off of Black Flag, meant to capitalize on the success of the open-ended sailing mechanics new to the Assassin's Creed franchise combined with the game's tried-and-true stealth and combat. In theory, this could have been a game that went all-in on the pirate fantasy in a spectacular fashion.

Related: What Skull And Bones' Golden Age Of Piracy Actually Means

Since that inception, the project has had a tumultuous ride. Reportedly, Skull and Bones even restarted development from scratch several years after its initial 2017 reveal. Multiple changes in the game's core vision pushed it even further from its origins, leading to Skull and Bones ultimately becoming a multiplayer-focused service game with different priorities than Black Flag. While the Assassin's Creed title was the franchise's biggest foray into sailing mechanics following Assassin's Creed 3, it was still at its heart a stealth-action game, with hand-to-hand