While Ubisoft proclaiming that its pirate-themed multiplayer game Skull and Bones was a “quadruple-A” title that justified its price tag became a running joke, it looks like the company hasn’t entirely let the idea of a AAAA game go. As caught by Timur222, Ubisoft producer Krasimira Yakovlieva has mentioned having worked on AAAA-scale games over the last 13+ years of her career in the About section of her LinkedIn profile. This description has since been changed, with mentions of “AAAA development” having been taken out of the body of text. However, the original text has been preserved via a screenshot you can see below.
“Game producer with 13+ years of experience across AAAA development, strategic partnerships, and media management,” read the LinkedIn profile of Yakovlieva before it was changed. The producer went on to mention Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Assassin’s Creed Shadows as being the AAAA games in question.
“At Ubisoft Sofia, I have contributed to several flagship titles in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, including Origins, Valhalla, Mirage, and Shadows,” the profile continued. “I have successfully led cross-functional teams through large-scale productions and milestone delivery, with direct collaboration with Apple on industry-first initiatives.”
It is worth noting that, for its part, Ubisoft hasn’t really brought up the concept of a quadruple-A release since Skull and Bones, likely in no small part thanks to the title failing to make much of a dent in the ever-crowded live-service multiplayer market. Whether Yakovlieva earnestly meant to describe both Mirage and Shadows as quadruple-A games through excitement for the releases, or whether it was simply a typo remains unknown.
Ubisoft had referred to Skull and Bones as being a quadruple-A release to justify the pirate game’s $70 price tag leading up to its February 2024 release. Responding to a question about limiting the potential player base for the multiplayer game thanks to its high price tag during an earnings call, CEO Yves Guillemot said: “You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game. 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.”
Whether Skull and Bones managed to live up to these lofty ambitions depends on who you ask. In our review of its release version, we called Skull and Bones an average game that, while featuring an appealing aesthetic and fun combat, was plagued with repetitive objectives and mission structure, questionable design choices, and a forgettable story with bland characters. Since then, however, Skull and Bones has seen quite a few substantial updates. Read more details here.
Interestingly, Ubisoft isn’t the only company to have claimed that a game would be of quadruple-A quality. Back in 2022, leading up to the release of Striking Distance Studios’ The Callisto Protocol, Krafton had referred to the survival horror title as a AAAA game that would have the “highest level of quality” and would offer the “maximum horror experience” with “distinguished action mechanics”. For details on how it would actually turn out, check out our review.
