General Gaming Kotaku: Skulls & Bones - 8 years+ and $120M+ blunder that can’t end due to gov’t subsidies

[Brian]

Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed Expansion Spends 8 Years In Dev Hell

KOTAKU.COM

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Inside Ubisoft Singapore’s struggle to ship Skull & Bones

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Nearly eight years after it was first conceived, Skull & Bones has blown through its initial budgets. According to three sources, the project has already cost Ubisoft more than $120 million, with that number continuing to balloon as hundreds of developers from other Ubisoft studios continue pitching in to try and ship the game without any more delays.

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But three sources also told Kotaku that a deal with the Singapore government requires it. In addition to hiring a certain number of people at its Singapore studio in exchange for generous subsidies, they said, Ubisoft Singapore must also launch original brand new IPs in the next few years.

Lololololololo

 

It’s a good read

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Couldn't happen to a "better" publisher/developer.

 

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“No one wants to admit they fucked up,” said one developer. “It’s too big to fail, just like the banks in the U.S.”

 

 

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“If Skull & Bones were at a competitor it would have been killed 10 times already,” said one former developer.

 

 

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More generously, another former developer said that Electronic Arts or Take-Two for example probably wouldn’t have attempted it in the first place.

 

OLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO - keep throwing money down that pit, Yves!

[Keyser_Soze]

 

A lot of money for a game that's going to suck.

[AbsolutSurgen]

I really enjoyed the ship combat in ACIV -- as a mini-game.  I didn't think it had the depth to become a fully fledged game.  When S&B was announced, I was confused as to how it would work.  Apparently the developers were as confused as I was.