A screenshot from Skull and Bones (2024), Ubisoft

A rumor claims that Ubisoft allegedly spent between $650 and $850 million on its AAAA Skull and Bones games.

A screenshot of Skull and Bones (2024), Ubisoft

According to YouTuber Endymion and his sources within Ubisoft, the project that ruined Ubisoft and put them in the dire financial position they are after Star Wars Outlaws’ soft sales in the second quarter is Skull and Bones, which he claims cost between $650 million and $850 million.

READ: Ubisoft’s ‘Skull And Bones’ Went On Sale For $10 At Best Buy After CEO Described Game As AAAA And Attempted To Justify $70 Price Tag

Endymion shared, “I was also told that the project that ruined Ubisoft was not actually Outlaws or Shadows. It was actually Skull and Bones.”

“My sources told me they have seen multiple different versions of the game that were each completely different over the years. They said that they were told that the budget that was spent on Skull and Bones, it ranged somewhere from $650 to $850 million over 10 years,” he added.

“And that Skull and Bones failed so badly for Ubisoft it was the actual reason why they’re dying the way that they are,” he said. It’s not actually Outlaws and Shadows if you can believe it. So they sunk a legendary amount of resources into that game and it clearly did not work out for them at all.”

A screenshot of Skull and Bones (2024), Ubisoft

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot infamously described Skull and Bones as a AAAA game and attempted to justify the game’s price tag of $70 during the company’s Q3 sales call for fiscal year 2024 back in February about a week before the game’s release.

He was asked by one investor, “Could you, maybe, unpack for us the decision to price it at [$70]? You’ve certainly emphasized that it’s designed for a lot of live services. What drove the decision to make the game pay to play when that could presumably limit the size of the player base and thereby PRI in the game?”

Guillemot responded, “You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game. You can see it on the market today. 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, AAA, AAAA game, that will deliver in the long run.”

A screenshot from Skull and Bones (2024), Ubisoft

Following the game’s release, Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming reported “the game currently has around 850,000 players total at the time of writing, which includes those who have opted to play the game with the eight-hour free trial provided by Ubisoft.”

In the same report, Henderson detailed Ubisoft spent “around $200 million” on the game and “doesn’t expect to make [it] back.”

A screenshot of Skull and Bones (2024), Ubisoft

The game was released to Steam on August 22, 2024 and only hit a peak concurrent player count of 2,615 players. Since then the game has seen massive fall off. The most recent 24-hour peak was just 412. That’s a decline of nearly 85%.

Skull and Bones SteamDB peak concurrent player charts

It’s estimated that the game has sold between 23,600 and 34,100 copies. For comparison that is around the estimates for Firewalk Studios’ Concord. Concord had estimated Steam sales between 20,800 and 25,700.

A screenshot of Skull and Bones (2024), Ubisoft

What do you make of this rumor that Ubisoft spent between $650 and $850 million on Skull and Bones?