Ubisoft still a victim of leaks
After the new Mario + Rabbids, another Ubisoft game was the protagonist of a leak. Let's talk about Skull & Bones, the pirate-themed game announced back in June 2017 and disappeared from the radar soon after. Now, according to the Microsoft Store, the game's release would be closer than ever, with insider Tom Henderson claiming a presentation is in the pipeline within the next month.According to the Twitter account Lumia Updates, which has always managed to perform a datamining of the Xbox store, Skull & Bones would be practically close to release. According to the user behind the account, in fact, the Ubisoft game should be released on November 8, 2022, more than five years after its presentation. The release date is quite plausible, considering that the game has appeared in the database of the US rating agency, which is the equivalent of our PEGI and usually, when events of this kind occur, it means that a title is practically ready for commercialization. .| ); }
Skull and Bones: 2022-11-08
- Lumia Updates (@ALumia_Italia) June 28, 2022
As stated at the opening, Skull & Bones was announced in 2017 but the game has practically disappeared since then. Strong rumors wanted Ubisoft to be engaged in a reboot of the game and it is very likely that now the title has moved from a single player first model to a multiplayer first model. Clearly, to discover the truth, it will be necessary to wait for a possible re-revival. Keep following geekinco for all the news and announcements in the pipeline from the world of video games.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot Is Taking a Large Paycut
Ubisoft’s long-time CEO Yves Guillemot will voluntarily take a $327,000 pay cut for the coming year.
“This is a personal decision by Yves Guillemot, which he took considering that the company had not reached the financial targets that it had publicly communicated to the markets,” a Ubisoft rep told Axios.
Guillemot essentially waived his “annual variable compensation”, which is a bonus on top of his usual salary that fluctuates based on the financial performance of the company.
Guillemot’s pay cut was not announced by Ubisoft, but instead tucked away in the fine print of a recent company filing. However, it follows a disappointing year for the company, which saw its operating profit fall by around 14 per cent last year.
The €310,607 ($327,000) pay cut equates to about a third of his annual compensation, reducing his compensation for the following year to around $656,000. This does not include stock awards that won’t be available until after 2023.
The majority of Guillemot’s voluntary pay cut was linked to the company’s financial performance, meaning that even if he hadn’t voluntarily given up this amount, it’s unlikely he would have seen an amount anywhere near what he’s used to.
However, it’s also tied to “the execution of internal reforms meant to address issues stemming from the company's sexual misconduct scandals” that have come to light in recent years.
Every Ubisoft Game in Development
Despite the commercial success with the recent Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Ubisoft has struggled to match the successes it experienced in the past. The company’s sales revenue fell by 5 per cent, and its stock value tumbled by 50 per cent in the last year. Considering the bomb that was Ghost Recon Breakpoint and the lackluster attention around games like Immortals Fenyx Rising, Ubisoft isn't experiencing the best of times.
Ubisoft is also preparing to fight off a takeover bid from several private equity firms. Alongside a Skull and Bones leak that showed a game that’s still very in-development, it’s not looking good for the beleaguered video game studio.
This isn't the first time a major games executive has taken a pay cut following poor results; last year Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick took a cut and gave up bonuses in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations against his company. Going back further into games industry history, then-Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata took a 50% cut to his salary in 2011 when Nintendo messed up the 3DS launch and resorted to an emergency price cut just months later. In 2014, Iwata would once again take a 50% pay cut due to poor hardware slaes.
Find out more about Ubisoft’s upcoming releases, as well as its recent addition of Ubisoft+ to the PlayStation Plus service.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.