Creative director Elisabeth Pellen has reportedly left the production of Ubisoft’s troubled pirate sim, Skull and Bones.
Like the fictional rock group Spinal Tap, Ubisoft’s pirate simulator Skull and Bones has gone under multiple personnel and name changes over its long, now 10-year development cycle.
First it was Black Flag Infinite, an MMO spin-off based on the similarly pirate-flavoured Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Then it was Skull and Bones, an entirely different multiplayer game focusing on ship-to-ship combat. Then it was reworked into a multiplayer shooter that Kotaku described in a 2020 report as “Rainbow Six Siege but with boats.”
That version was also scrapped, and the iteration of Skull and Bones now in development is described as a survival game akin to Rust. The last we heard, Ubisoft had the game pencilled in for release sometime in 2023 or 2024.
According to a new report by Kotaku, however, Skull and Bones has now lost its latest creative director, Elisabeth Pellen. Pellen led the team at Ubisoft Singapore as Skull and Bones made that pivot to a Rust-style salty survival game; this latest version of the project had a closed beta phase in late August.
Ubisoft has confirmed Pellen’s departure, though it puts a positive spin on her move from Ubisoft Singapore to the gaming giant’s offices in Paris.
“Five years ago, Elisabeth Pellen went to Ubisoft Singapore with a mission to reboot the creative direction of Skull and Bones,” Ubisoft wrote in a statement to Kotaku. “She succeeded, and the Skull and Bones team is now fulfilling her vision to deliver a unique naval action RPG experience to our players.”
According to Kotaku’s anonymous sources, however, Pellen’s move was more abrupt – she was reportedly meant to remain at Ubisoft Singapore until the end of the year. Pellen is the latest creative lead to depart the troubled Skull and Bones ship. Its two previous directors were Justin Farren, and before him, Sebastien Puel. The game’s creative direction was reportedly shifted following the departure of Farren and Puel; it remains to be seen whether the same will happen again in the wake of Pellen’s departure.
Reactions to August’s closed beta were mixed, though again, Ubisoft has put a positive spin on those reactions in its statement to Kotaku (“The positive feedback received during the recent Closed Beta highlights the invaluable work Elisabeth and the entire team have done,” it reads.)
With a reported $120 million already spent on Skull and Bones' development in 2021, the game’s a major gamble for Ubisoft, which announced a startling $538 million loss in May this year. As a result, it’s come up with a plan to reduce its workforce and put in more effort into developing Assassin’s Creed games. Among the armada of franchise entries on the way is a reported remake of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag – said to be in development at (you guessed it) Ubisoft Singapore. If the studio isn’t sick of pirates and old ships yet, it probably soon will be.
Kotaku also reports that efforts are underway to form a union at the Singapore studio, with the country’s Creative Media and Publishing Union currently arranging a ballot for Ubisoft Singapore staff. The move comes in the wake of several complaints about alleged unfair treatment, sexual harassment and discrimination.
To date, Skull and Bones still doesn’t have a firm release date.
