Before the launch of Skull and Bones, developer Ubisoft proudly proclaimed it to be the first “AAAA” title, whatever that means. After the game’s rocky launch and dwindling player count, Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red decided to poke fun at the AAAA label in a sly way.
In a recent Q&A chat, CD Projekt Red’s investor relations VP Karolina Gnaś took the opportunity to take a jab at Ubisoft’s AAAA label for Skull and Bones. One question asked if the company would reassess its stance on giving Cyberpunk and The Witcher “AAAA” status following Skull and Bones, to which Gnaś jokingly replied, “Ours will be AAAAA.”
It seems like the joke doesn’t just stop at the community but the industry as well. There are various explanations for what constitutes a AAAA game these days, that it’s hard to separate the truth (if there even is one) from jokes and memes. We’re not quite sure how to clasify games under this new label either as AAA is typically associated with premium games backed by major gaming companies with hefty funding, big marketing pushes and of course, top prices attached to them. How does a game go beyond that? I guess only GTA 6 can answer that.
Ubisoft’s boast about Skull and Bones being a AAAA game didn’t help it from underperforming at launch, though. Built on the foundations of the excellent naval combat from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Skull and Bones actually had very little to offer on release despite numerous delays and nearly a decade of development time. Ubisoft claims that it was the company’s second-highest engaged game at the time, though those numbers have likely drastically dwindled by now.
We think there’s still some potential for Skull and Bones to bounce back, writing in our official review:
“Skull and Bones works when it works and if you can get past the MMO-like quests, there’s a fully-imagined pirate experience here. Just a pity that some of these features aren’t are fleshed out and exciting as others. But I do have hope that Ubisoft will work its magic here and turn this into a long-lasting live-service game. There’s potential here.”
Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red seems fine with continuing to use the AAA label for its upcoming games, which we know will be a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, a remake of The Witcher and The Witcher 4.
Source: Stockwatch
