1 Disastrous Game Allegedly Cost Ubisoft More Than Both the James Cameron Avatar Movies Combined

In the market of video game development, budgets can balloon to astronomical levels, rivaling even the most expensive Hollywood blockbusters. But what happens when a game’s budget spirals so far out of control that it threatens to sink an entire company?

Enter Skull and Bones, Ubisoft’s pirate-themed action-adventure game that has become a cautionary tale for the ages.

According to a new report, the troubled development of Skull and Bones may have cost Ubisoft a staggering sum that dwarfs even the combined budgets of James Cameron’s Avatar films. If true, this revelation sheds new light on the company’s current financial woes and raises questions about the future of the once-mighty gaming giant.

The Sinking Ship That Was Skull and Bones

When Skull and Bones was first announced back in 2017, it seemed like a surefire hit. With the success of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag‘s naval combat still fresh in players’ minds, a standalone pirate game from Ubisoft felt like a no-brainer. But as the years went by and the game faced delay after delay, it became clear that something was amiss.

Now, YouTuber Endymion has come forward with a startling claim based on information from anonymous insider sources. According to Endymion, the real amount that Ubisoft spent on Skull and Bones‘ elongated 11-year development cycle is far higher than initially reported:

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 ranged somewhere from $650 to $850 million over 10 years.

To put that figure into perspective, James Cameron’s Avatar, which held the title of the most expensive movie ever made for years, had a budget of around $237 million. Its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, reportedly cost between $350 million. If Endymion’s sources are accurate, Skull and Bones‘ budget could have funded both films and still had change left over for a couple of blockbuster sequels.

The Fallout from the “AAAA” Game’s Failure

The alleged budget of Skull and Bones is even more staggering when you consider the game’s lackluster performance upon release. Despite over a decade of development and hundreds of millions of dollars poured into the project, the game failed to make a splash with critics or players.

According to Endymion, this failure had far-reaching consequences for Ubisoft:

Skull and Bones failed so badly for Ubisoft it was the actual reason why they’re dying the way that they are right now. 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.

If true, this would mean that Skull and Bones, not the recently released Star Wars Outlaws or the upcoming (and highly contentious) Assassin’s Creed Shadows, is the primary culprit behind Ubisoft’s current financial troubles. The company had reportedly hoped that those titles would help pull them out of the “financial ruins” left in the wake of Skull and Bones, but so far, it seems that Ubisoft is still struggling to stay afloat.

As the gaming industry continues to grapple with ballooning budgets and the ever-increasing pressure to deliver blockbuster hits, the cautionary tales of spectacular failures like Skull and Bones and more recently, Sony-backed Concord loom large.

Will Ubisoft be able to weather this storm and emerge stronger on the other side? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: $850M or not, the company will be feeling the impact of this disastrous project for years to come.

What do you think about the alleged budget of Skull and Bones? Is there a point where a game’s development costs become too high to justify? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!