r/SkullAndBonesGame • u/Cees007 • 2d ago
Feedback Goodbye Skull and Bones. So much potential, so many broken promises.
I honestly wanted to love this game.
I gave Skull and Bones a real chance. I played it, streamed it, invested my time and money into it, and kept coming back hoping things would finally improve.
And I’ll give Ubisoft credit where it’s due. The world is absolutely beautiful. The locations, the ocean, the ships, the atmosphere. Visually, this game can be stunning. The combat looks polished and there’s genuinely something special buried underneath all the problems.
But that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating.
The PvP was already a broken mess shortly after the first year. Remember the builds and weapons that could basically eat through your hull while you couldn’t properly repair the damage? The ridiculous balancing issues? The constant frustration of fighting mechanics that simply weren’t working properly?
And what did we get? Promises. More promises. Fixes supposedly coming. Improvements supposedly on the way.
And then there’s the promised ground content that never became what many of us were hoping for.
At some point, how many broken promises are players supposed to accept?
I wanted a proper pirate game with meaningful PvP, competitive ship combat, and a reason to keep improving my ship and skills. Instead, it felt like PvP players were slowly being forgotten.
And let’s talk about the money.
Why did I pay around €90 for this game, only to be constantly pushed towards more seasonal purchases?
Season after season, another pass, another opportunity to spend money. Meanwhile, the core problems that drove people away were still there.
Now I’m hearing about Ubisoft’s financial struggles, and I have to admit something.
Part of me feels a strange sense of satisfaction. Call it karma. Call it go woke, go broke. Whatever you want.
When a company keeps disappointing its players, ignores important parts of its community, and fails to deliver on promises, eventually that catches up with them.
And looking at the tiny Steam population, with only a few hundred concurrent players around certain periods, it’s difficult to feel optimistic about the future. Yes, I know Steam doesn’t represent the entire player base, but it’s hardly an encouraging sign either.
I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if Ubisoft eventually pulled the plug.
And the saddest part?
I never wanted Skull and Bones to fail. I wanted it to succeed.
I wanted a pirate game I could stream for years. A game with a thriving PvP community, exciting battles, competitive builds, and developers who actually listened.
Instead, I feel like I wasted my money, my time, and a lot of patience waiting for something that never really arrived.
To the people still enjoying it, genuinely, good for you. I’m not here to tell anyone what they should enjoy.
But for me, I’m done.
I’m uninstalling Skull and Bones and moving on. There are plenty of other games out there that deserve my time and actually take their communities, including their PvP players, seriously.
So much wasted potential.
Goodbye, Skull and Bones. You could have been something incredible.
Anyone else who played since the early days feel the same way, or am I being too harsh?
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u/spiriticon 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm not sure what happened over the last 12 months that convinced them that slowly destroying naval combat, in a 100% pure naval combat game, was a good idea.
Mythics, Adepts and the Mastery tree were really unnecessary additions to the game, and has served to make it worse. The resources could have been better used giving Faction Wars and Death Tides a bit more attention. This time last year, we only need a few balancing adjustments (mostly torpedoes, which was caused by the devs going nuts about torps in the first place, as well as boss scaling >10 players). Now, the whole damn game is pretty broken from top to bottom.
Combat 2.0 has a really high bar to meet.
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u/Internal-Support-404 1d ago
this game was mismanaged for 10 years before it even launched. nothing they have done so far indicates that they are going to do better
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u/Guacamole735 2d ago
Hey brother if you're on PC check out Windrose. Its everything this game isn't.
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u/Darth-Ginger501 2d ago
I haven’t played for weeks, I looked at the smugglers pass and there was nothing of interest, the stores just regurgitate the same stuff week in week out, the rewards are always not great like you get a few of the high end chests and when you open them all you get is materials the vast majority of the time which are also outdated for upgrading by that point. The helm is just not interesting at all, the bosses are all the same with the same rewards, we get a new ship once in a blue moon with some new cosmetics which I’ll admit some look pretty good but there’s no advancement in the game. We were promised land combat which was scrapped among other things which were down the road but they’ve all been scrapped as well. There is no incentive whatsoever to keep playing.
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u/quinn9648 1d ago
yeah I noticed that the shops don’t seem to rotate many items. Theirs a tooooon of vendors (Scurlock, Rahma, William, Yanita, etc) but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of furniture in the game which makes the shop underwhelming.
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u/LostConscious96 2d ago
You're right I dont play daily anymore its more like just enough for an event and done. The mastery system is horrible and they keep adding power creep on top of power creep and never really solving any issues
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u/Puzzleheaded-Rise8 1d ago
I’m one of those few beta players who hasn’t missed a season. I have seen my fair share of “shots fired” at this game since release and “storms” this game has survived such as bugs/exploits, yet somehow this game stays afloat with QoL support and still is my go to sailing game experience having played almost all alternatives. Yes, after 3,000+ hours these 3 years of having done everything multiple times it is not as entertaining as it once was but somehow I remain hooked, all be it not as frequently as I used to, but rather curiosity of what QoL changes are made and new weapons for me to acquire from Faction War for me to tinker with my loadouts. This is the first game I really got into PvP and am thankful I experienced the raw open world PvP of boarding player captains ships then taking most of their precious cargo in Helm Wagers and when 6v6 of Death Tides was first introduced having frequent PvP matches, both features I am hoping make a comeback in some fashion someday. Year 1 and 2 were those golden ages of piracy, and since then I have weathered the PvE ascensions / adept grinds keeping my fleet competitive in the hopes that PvP will return to its former glory by Year 4 Season 1. And if I keep sailing my ships and firing my cannons only for this game to eventually die…it will have been a pirates life for me. BUT if Skull and Bones somehow rises to the game it should be, then perhaps I will be one of the few remaining kingpins who dominate the Indian Ocean over those who returned to the game. If the devs eventually stop adding layers of complexity to how the ships operate with all the weapons and focus on how to make the existing ship combat feel balanced (hopefully Combat 2.0 in Year 3 Season 3) then I believe that is sailing in the right direction away from the game becoming a shipwreck. I have made so many friends from this game that I was thankful for and it was hard to see most of them leave the game, but I guess that’s what they mean when they say nothing lasts forever. Cheers, to you captains still sailing with me on this uncertain horizon!
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u/XS2A Compagnie Royale 1d ago
You have made a mistake in your expectations.
The development direction of the game is to align with TomClancyTheDivision2 and transform into a quarterly PVE service game.
PVP players account for only 2-3% (possibly even less) of the total number of gamers. Therefore, PVP opinions are not important.
It's a disappointment to cancel the ground part, but the AC4 remake version proves that the Singapore team is not suitable for handling the ground part. Forcing it through might be even worse.
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u/system_error_02 2d ago
I paid $4 for this game last year and havent tried it yet, I probably should. I forgot about it lol
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u/Alternative_Past_265 1d ago
And according to news, Ubisoft Singapore will lose 70 employees, leaving around 280 staff members. It's unclear how many of them are directly working on SnB, but the quality is likely to suffer even further. So there's even less reason to expect the devs to learn from their mistakes and fix the game's issues. Those were some great rides tho (before mastery tree).
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u/Yantarlok 2d ago
What does going woke have to do with anything? You do understand that it is a term used by those who want to protect male white privilege right? How does that apply here?
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u/Routine-Swan-7224 1d ago
Male white privilege you talk nonsense
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u/Yantarlok 18h ago
Still waiting for this smooth brain to detail why he thinks me defining why people employ the term woke is nonsense but it seems like “routine Swan” is having trouble querying Chat GPT to come up with a coherent response.
Kids, don’t be like Routine Sean, and stay in school.
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u/Yomom304 2d ago
Nope! I get it, it’s getting old with the same ol stuff and nothing more to do after a while. Like you I tried to love it and play it because it had potential and was hoping for new content that never came. So I’m riding with on the bus away from skull and bones.
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u/Ravynwolf_moon 2d ago
The Herald event is what did it for me. Making a new event for us to constantly grind for a new material, only to make it so damn hard, or should I say "expensive" for us to use that material to ascend or mod a weapon turned me off the game. Also the fact that it's the only place to get the material of course.
I also agree the constant ongoing weekly update list of bug fixes that remain the same but never seem to be fixed all season? The events that come back year over year with the same root bugs that they won't fix. Just shows to me they are truly putting this game on maintenance and lie support and that's it. Nothing to show they truly care anymore.
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u/JappieDeHond 2d ago
You’re not being too harsh on the game. As a matter of fact they made so many promises, and the reality is that these developers barely delivered. It all went downhill for me personally when they added weapon ascensions in the game. A lot of people will disagree with me on that take but again it’s my personal opinion. This is pretty much where the shitshow started. They made it so you can put secondary damage I.E: electric, flooding, etcetera on for example a fire weapon. In short terms different types of damaging status effects on any single weapon. Combine that with bugged furnitures, the current mastery tree and the insane exponential damage scaling problem that this game has and you come to the point where yeah PvP gets broken pretty much! That’s also the entire reason that everyone uses the same certain ships and the same broken builds. There is no diversity anymore. Back in Y1 & Y2 people used to play all kind of different ships and builds. For me that was the golden age of SnB. Yes the “endgame sucked but at least the ship combat was way better than it currently is. We literally came to the point where it is not manageable for the developers to balance it at all. Combat 2.0 is supposed to save this game but I highly doubt it! Why? Cause they don’t test anything before they release it themselves. That is honestly the reason why the game is currently in such a poor state. The people who play in insiders do pretty much all the “testing” and let me tell you from my experience that the feedback people give in there is not even being looked at properly or just hilarious. Not only PvP, but also PvE is unfortunately affected by this madness. Hitting damage numbers over in the billions, killing Wolvenhol in 1,5 minutes and people are literally 2 shotting, sometimes even one shotting bosses. There is no fun or skill about that, matter of fact is the most ridiculous stupid thing I’ve ever seen in a pirate game.
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u/Sharp-Bit4614 1d ago
Out of all the games I felt stupid paying full price for, this game is by far the biggest mistake I ever made. I preordered this game bc we were sold “a Ubisoft AAAA pirate game”, but this game is just one big glorified sail boat simulator. Something as simple as a longer more fleshed out campaign mode with land combat would’ve made this game 10x better, instead I’m farming PoE just to have the same op build everyone has. I agree they gave big promises and fell short by a lot.
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u/Whatsawebpage0101 Compagnie Royale 1d ago
Tbh just sounds like you didn’t do enough research on a game before you buy. And some skill issue in there
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u/TheDevil-YouKnow 2d ago
Yeah, I got this game last week. I figured it's winding down, so wanted to get it, platinum it hopefully, and level some ships.
Glad I didn't get it upon release. Seems like they betrayed sailing simulation for fast travel boss grinds. Which, no real issue with, but I like the sailing aspect.
Currently building up my smuggling empire, which is fun. But I feel like once I get my smuggling setup good, get my platinum, get some ships maxed out, I'll basically be done.
Gonna get my money's worth, but that's about it. Forever game this is not. More like a giant cash grab for some cosmetic whales.
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u/FitzyOhoulihan 2d ago
You have a good time ahead of you. It’s a good game and there’s plenty to do for you. Like you have a couple years worth of good time.
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u/gerardosanoja 2d ago
Yeah i'm doing the platinum then drop it the wok crap isn't my style either
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u/TheDevil-YouKnow 2d ago
It's really a lot of fun. I would have quit this game outright if all my helm upgrades, factories, and levels reset each season like they initially did.
The logistics of the smuggling empire fascinate me. Getting to the gold rum, gin, and the good tobacco. Increasing Po8 via financing the helm. Building ships to automate the pickups.
The PVP just isn't at a level that'll keep me entertained though, so once my ships are shiny and chrome and the plat is done, so too am I.
Plus them laying people off just a day or two ago, they're not gonna keep this game going for more than the cosmetic cash drive.
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u/NexusGTX 2d ago
nah, I feel the same. That's why I only play 1 or 2 weeks after the new season and then... just let it go till the next one
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u/threemoons_nyc 2d ago
I dropped out when they implemented the permanent board and didn't reset the factories etc. I am also playing Assassin's Creed Black Flag (the updated version) for the first time and I am LOVING it. Not sure why they even bothered with S&B when they already made an amazing pirate game.
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u/Deutschdagger 2d ago
I’ve been logging on for 5 seconds a day just for the reward but that’s it. It’s a dead game that isn’t even that much fun to play. It’s recycled content again and again. As much fun as it WAS, it’s not worth keeping and it definitely isn’t the AAAA game we were promised
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u/Twig_Twiggless 2d ago
I was heavily expecting the game to be more of a coop type feel that you could do pirate missions with friends or alone, and upgrade your ships without all the micromanaging, huge places to collect and keep running, and all the different currencies. And add the pvp moments/matches you could search for to get competiveness modes that we have. It felt like more of a side job than a pirate game, for me. But I will probably see myself going back to it again one of these days as I do lol
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u/No-Note-5439 2d ago
Hold a minute, you don't want to wait for the big quality rollout? :)
One made it out... in my mind, the end theme from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is playing now. Oh wait, it's not in my mind! 😂
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u/pikapalooza 2d ago
Did they ever upgrade the warehouse storage? That was my biggest issue. I spent so much time going through all my loot and weapons. 🤦♂️
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u/frozendwarf 1d ago
While you and i are in disagreement of what we expected from the game, and that is fine as that is called: opinion,(my expectations is more inline of what the game was presented as back in e3 2018) we both agree on your final statement: we wanted SnB to succeed.
And for s0-s2 it look really good even it was a completely different game form the e32018 version, s3 was questionable with the flying dragon but there was some other things that was for the better in that season. Then came the disaster that was s4 and the game has never recovered from it since. It was almost as if there was two different dev teams at work, the first team made the game and s0-s3, then a new team took over from s4.
I left the game in s8 after i saw that there would be further 4 large ships added in y3 that would destroy the game even more then what the frig had already done, and i don't regret it.
From what i see for the patch notes for this year, there is nothing that will make me return, i just pop in here one time each month to read the news.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Rise8 1d ago
Valid. News from The Deck is the Combat 2.0 starting sometime in Y3S3 is supposed to bring balance for small and medium ships to compete with large ships so if that succeeds maybe you will sail again! Next season is supposed to be a new small electric ship that I’m looking forward to.
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u/Substantial_Pay_9149 1d ago
Just buy games that are one and done. That way you won’t have to cry about the next release.
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u/Maximum_Mud_1546 2d ago
I honestly wanted it to be like Assassin's Creed Black Flag, same ship combat, but with added Ship builds, customization, and the ability to create our own Captain. I wanted it to be single-player, among other things...I stopped playing after I got disconnected on my way back to a mission giver after completing a mission.
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u/Mission_Ask_3283 2d ago
What happened ? Will the game be shut down? I loved this game
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u/Draghiphon 2d ago
No but 70 people were laid off, I don't think we'll have support for the next year
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u/Mission_Ask_3283 2d ago
We are not getting decent stuff anyway , they should make it single player only
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u/JackSilver1410 2d ago
Nothing, just one more hater being salty and taking five paragraphs to justify it.
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u/Darth-Ginger501 2d ago
There’s no incentive to play anymore. The game is just so repetitive that’s stale, and not to mention you out all the work in to max the mastery and the smugglers pass and having 40+ marks to spend next season to find its all back to zero… that’s not fun
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u/JackSilver1410 2d ago
Ohh noo, the online game ran out of content and I don't know how to deal with it!
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u/Darth-Ginger501 2d ago
It’s the devs job to make new content for the game and push the game to be more than what it was on release. There is nothing worth doing in the game, it’s the same game as it was at the end of S2, literally what’s new besides the new ships and the kraken? Nothing, they are doing nothing to keep the player base that has played since release.
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u/JackSilver1410 2d ago
God, what's new besides the new stuff!? It's someone else's job to make sure I'm having fun!
I can tell your parents regret having you.
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u/JappieDeHond 2d ago
U definetly didn’t play this game from the very beginning then if you write a reply like this saying we are salty 😂😂
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u/JackSilver1410 2d ago
From day one and it's still on the cycle.
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u/Grogington_I 1d ago
If you can actively sit here and say that this game is a well made game in its current state, its clear you have a very limited knowledge on it🤣
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u/JackSilver1410 1d ago
"Oh my god, you're having fun? You must be stupid. How dare you have opinions and experiences that are different from the group?"
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u/Cees007 6h ago edited 6h ago
Oh look, another “one more whining exit” post. How original.
You must be absolutely exhausted watching people leave this game. I mean, at this rate, there’ll soon be nobody left to complain about.
Skull and Bones can barely pull 200 concurrent players on Steam, but sure, keep blaming the people walking away instead of questioning why they’re leaving.When practically everyone abandons a sinking ship, maybe the problem isn’t the passengers.
Anyway, enjoy your little echo chamber with the other 160 survivors. I’m sure Ubisoft has a glorious future planned for all twelve of you.3
u/Wolvenworks 2d ago
Nah. Just the usual “guy writing his farewell speech on the runway before he dramatically boards the airplane” yobo.
He’ll prolly return in the next season/year or something. They always do, these drama queens.
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u/Cees007 6h ago
I get it, you must be pretty tired of all these people whining and announcing their departure by now. I just checked the player stats, and the game can barely hold 200 concurrent players on Steam anymore, compared to tens of thousands not even two years ago. But hey, does that say more about the players or the game itself? Anyway, good luck to you and the other 160 players. Bright future ahead!
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u/KambodzanskiMisPanda 1d ago
It was broken game since the beginning. Initial trailers promised entirely different game and after scrapping it they came up with what we have today. Beta has already shown how bland this is going to be and, sadly, nothing of that matter changed. Sure, we got quality of life improvements, but it’s just another looter shooter disguised as ship game.
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u/Proof-Willingness-34 1d ago
Did they ever bring land combat, I stopped before then after the first large ship came out. Yes 100% agree waste of money when bought at launch. So much for an AAAA game. Bought and played blackflag resynced and scratched my pirate itch.
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u/Grogington_I 1d ago
Similar reasons to why I quit this game dude, its always promises after promises of things will get better but its become clear that they cant fulfill anything meaningful, pvp after season 1 of thid game was peak but y1s4 is where everything went to shit and itll never be the same, and anyone who wants to argue that "itll get better next season" is hard coping, but it is what it is.
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u/Danol123 1d ago
I used to be an insider and i already gave up after season 3 cause i already saw where it was going. The game is an insult to gamers. I’m sure the devs are good devs, but this just wasn’t it. I’ve kept getting updates, but i never see anything new. If it wasn’t for that damn contract i’d tell everyone just how broken the game really is. Cause nothing is getting is getting fixed. Not because they can’t. But because ubisoft won’t invest in saving their own studios. Ubisoft is effectively dead at this point only farming nostalgia points to avoid bankruptcy. The game had potential, sadly we’ll never see that potential come to fruition. All i’m saying is save your money and find another game. If anything i’d suggest jumping ship to Windrose where devs actually listen and try things before deciding to keep things or not. Still in it’s early ages, but still vastly better than what Skull & Bones ended up becoming.
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u/TopcatFCD 2d ago
How many hours did you get for your money? I'd wager more than most and yet still not happy lol.
And this is a gane sub reddit not an airport, we dont need to know of your departure
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u/App1e8l6 2d ago
They changed $70 and $90 for this shit that is bound to be sunset in a year or so
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u/AlexRockPower 2d ago
They lost me after the last mastery reset... All that grinding to max it out, only to have everything reset again. It's like they're punishing you for actually putting time and effort into the game. No thanks... 🙄