An interesting read, thanks for taking the time to do it.
I think it ran into the same issue my old studio, Capcom Vancouver, did with Dead Rising 4 before my time there. The thing is, for some specific games and genres, there are player expectations. In Dead Rising, you're expected to be able to interact with everything, have complex bosses, and have little bonus touches to everything (like 'wait, I can do that?' moments).
For Skull and Bones, it not only has to compete with Black Flag but also with Sea of Thieves on player expectations. When Sea of Thieves launched as a minimum viable product, you could sail like a crazy person, half crashing into land, and go on huge adventures on land and sea with friends. Despite being a simple game, the physics, randomness, and multiplayer carried it. Playing the beta of Skull and Bones, it lacked this sort of freedom. I remember reviews back in the day for Black Flag basically liking everything except the sailing sections a bit less. That's why it was a shock that Ubi focused on that aspect, when sailing in an open world is just the icing on the cake in games like Black Flag and older games like Wind Waker.
Tl;Dr: Players have minimum expectations in a minimum viable product that change depending on the genre or game.
An interesting read, thanks for taking the time to do it.
I think it ran into the same issue my old studio, Capcom Vancouver, did with Dead Rising 4 before my time there. The thing is, for some specific games and genres, there are player expectations. In Dead Rising, you're expected to be able to interact with everything, have complex bosses, and have little bonus touches to everything (like 'wait, I can do that?' moments).
For Skull and Bones, it not only has to compete with Black Flag but also with Sea of Thieves on player expectations. When Sea of Thieves launched as a minimum viable product, you could sail like a crazy person, half crashing into land, and go on huge adventures on land and sea with friends. Despite being a simple game, the physics, randomness, and multiplayer carried it. Playing the beta of Skull and Bones, it lacked this sort of freedom. I remember reviews back in the day for Black Flag basically liking everything except the sailing sections a bit less. That's why it was a shock that Ubi focused on that aspect, when sailing in an open world is just the icing on the cake in games like Black Flag and older games like Wind Waker.
Tl;Dr: Players have minimum expectations in a minimum viable product that change depending on the genre or game.
Nice article, i'm super excited to see your future game, congratz on the publisher deal !