So, where can Black Flag's lingering influence still be found most strongly through all of this? 'The influence from Black Flag you will see in the naval combat, which is the common thread. Barnard says his key focuses are in ensuring that there's 'depth to the naval combat' and 'looking at the progression system with Infamy', as well as the 'enemy factions you'll face' and 'the depth of the crafting'. 'Since I joined, my focus has been about taking the creative vision to life,' he says.

'The team developed their expertise in Naval Combat through their co-development work so we decided to capitalize on that to create a totally new world – the world of Skull and Bones,' says game director Ryan Barnard, who joined the project in June of last year after 'the team had just passed a major internal milestone.' It's worth remembering that Ubisoft delayed Skull and Bones into 2022 back in May 2021 – so whatever that milestone was, Ubisoft liked what it saw enough to allocate a year of additional resources behind the project. So, given that Skull and Bones has its developmental roots in a game that was released all the way back in 2013, how much of Assassin's Creed can be felt in the final release? Ubisoft Singapore, who collaborated with Ubisoft Montreal on the naval aspects of AC3, AC4, and Rogue, had initially set out to build a Black Flag expansion before its ambitions allegedly grew.

'The cornerstone throughout the whole development of Skull and Bones is having best in class naval combat'įamously, Skull and Bones started life after the world fell in love with the naval battles of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.

Sea of thieves vs skull and bones