Cranium and Bones prices $60, or your native equal, and that is a hefty price ticket for one thing that bears the trimmings of a live-service recreation, together with an in-game retailer, battle go, seasonal occasions, and premium forex. However Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot defended the price in an traders name right this moment, saying the excessive worth is warranted as a result of it is a “quadruple-A recreation.”
Guillemot’s assertion got here in response to a query from an analyst, who advised that the worth level “might presumably restrict the dimensions of the participant base.”
“You will note that Cranium and Bones is a full-fledged recreation,” Guillemot replied. “It is a very large recreation and we really feel that individuals will actually see how huge and full that recreation is. So it is a actually full triple-A, quadruple-A recreation that can ship in the long term.”
Guillemot’s response—”It is a good recreation!”—is to be anticipated. What’s attention-grabbing is the truth that the Cranium and Bones price ticket has come into query within the first place. I’ve listened to plenty of investor calls through the years and I do not recall ever listening to a selected pricing determination questioned like that. Discussions of industry-wide developments, just like the rise of the free-to-play mannequin or when Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto mentioned in 2023 that “recreation costs are too low,” are widespread sufficient, however “Why are you charging a lot for this one recreation?” is one thing else totally: It is an implicit criticism.
Publicly, Ubisoft has excessive hopes for Cranium and Bones. It is one in every of two “premium” video games Ubisoft is releasing in its fourth quarter, alongside Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown, and Guillemot mentioned it “has the potential to ascertain itself as a brand new stay expertise over the long run.”
We’ll have a way for the way that is going to work out quickly sufficient: The pre-release open beta is stay now, with Cranium & Bones lastly set to launch on February 16.