Ubisoft’s second $70 game, Skull and Bones, has seen its price reduced significantly less than three weeks after its release.
Following a troubled development that saw the game delayed on a number of occasions and rebooted in 2020, Skull and Bones was finally released on February 16, priced $69.99 / £69.99.
But it hasn’t taken long for retailers to slash its price, with Best Buy currently offering the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions for $44.99, and UK retailer Hit pricing them at £49.85.
During an earnings call the week before its release, Ubisoft was asked why it had chosen to charge $70 for Skull and Bones and potentially limit the size of its player base, despite its live service leanings.
In response, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot asserted that Skull and Bones deserved to be a full-price game because of its scale.
“You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game,” he said. “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.”
Ubisoft released Skull and Bones alongside a free eight-hour trial, which is available on all platforms and lets players carry over their progress to the full game should they choose to purchase it.
While Skull and Bones was originally planned to be Ubisoft’s first $70 game, its delays meant the publisher’s first game to be released at the increased price point was last December’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
It was also heavily discounted quickly, with its price falling to $49.99 / £43.85 within two weeks of its release.
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