Skull and Bones Already Getting Price Cuts

Game ZXC

Skull and Bones

By John Bonelli

Published Mar 6, 2024

Highlights

Skull and Bones saw a temporary $25 price drop shortly after release.
Ubisoft fans have flocked to Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag instead of buying Skull and Bones.
Live service games like Skull and Bones may face challenges with a $70 price tag, leading to potential price drops.

Ubisoft's latest release, Skull and Bones, has seen its price reduced by $25 only three weeks after its release, though it has since returned to full price. Skull and Bones is Ubisoft's second $70 AAA title behind December 2023's first-person adventure shooter Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. As the price of video games has risen from the $60 standard over the past several years, many gamers have become more selective over which games they choose to spend money on, live service titles especially.

After years of new trailers, disappointing delays, and even a development reboot, Skull and Bones is finally available to the masses. The pirate-themed live service ship combat game launched to unremarkable reception, with many Ubisoft fans opting to revisit Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag instead. Ever since Skull and Bones' beta weekends, Black Flag has seen its player counts skyrocket, as its stellar naval combat served as the springboard for Ubisoft to move ahead with Skull and Bones in the first place. Additionally, rumors of a Black Flag remake have garnered a lot of buzz and excitement throughout the gaming zeitgeist, certainly more so than Skull and Bones' launch has.

Prince of Persia Lost Crown x Skull and Bones

How Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Skull and Bones Might Shape Ubisoft's Future Direction

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown & Skull and Bones have been Ubisoft's most pivotal recent releases and they offer some big lessons for the publisher.

Now, only a few weeks after its release, Skull and Bones' controversial $70 price tag has been slashed nearly in half to $45 at Best Buy. Unfortunately for gamers who have been waiting for a price cut to set sail on the open sea, Skull and Bones was mysteriously restored back to its original $70 price just a day later. The reasons for this strange $25 price reduction are unknown, though it's possible it could've been an error on Best Buy's end, considering it was reverted the next day. Skull and Bones is currently available for $65 at GameStop, making it apparent that the game is slowly beginning to come down in price.

Skull and Bones Price Temporarily Dropped To $45 At Best Buy

While Skull and Bones' Best Buy price has since gone back up to $70, it's possible it will see another permanent drop sometime soon, as it is still struggling to find its footing weeks after launch. Most live service games launch as free to play, so when an online service game comes along that asks gamers to shell out $70, the company behind it almost always meets backlash and the title is more likely to struggle. If its price does happen to plummet by summer, Skull and Bones would have a better chance at finding success, as more people would be willing to dive into its open seas.

Skull and Bones isn't the only big new 2024 game to have its $70 price tag slashed. Rocksteady's struggling Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has seen similar price cuts at most big retailers, though these seem to be permanent, even with a seasonal roadmap with new characters like the Joker lined up. As 2024 continues, it'll be interesting to see where the prices of these AAA live service games end up by the end of the year after their initial $70 launches, and whether this practice is destined to be short-lived.

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones is an action-adventure title developed by Ubisoft with a heavy focus on piracy and naval combat. Set in an open-world environment inspired by locations in the Indian Ocean, players take control of a customizable pirate captain and ship and undertake missions to collect treasure and raise in rank. Players rely on ship combat with cannons, mortars, and rockets to defeat both NPCs and other player ships.