Hand-carved wooden, Full 360-degree rotation, Velocity Paddles, and—most significantly—a terrific huge button proper within the center that orders your crew to interrupt out into sea shanties. Oh, aye, it’s really the pirate’s life for me with the Ship Wheel Controller for Cranium and Bones, which obtained a shiny trailer in time for the sport’s launch simply earlier than the weekend. Actually, whilst somebody who wasn’t in any respect impressed with the sport’s last beta earlier than its launch, the concept of a superbly detailed wheel to steer my ship throughout the seas was a seductive one.
As a result of there’s somewhat pirate in all of us, methinks…
So after all it had an much more profound impact on individuals truly invested ($70 deep, at the very least!) in Cranium and Bones. Feedback on the video vary from pleasure, to barely snarky however completely honest “You gotta make a recreation individuals wish to play earlier than releasing costly add ons,” to a quite witty “Should include the sport, that’s why it has a $70 price ticket.” What only a few feedback appeared to clock on to was the tiniest of smallprint proper on the finish of the video saying:
“This gadget just isn’t on the market; it has been developed for Cranium and Bones promotion solely.”
A Wheel That Is Not A Wheel
Yep, this stunning controller isn’t actual. And naturally, if you be a part of the dots, it is smart {that a} hand-carved wood ship wheel could also be a bit overkill—but it surely might’ve been, dunno, product of plastic however designed by a extremely expert carpenter in a method befitting of the type and interval? In actuality, a peripheral like this may in all probability have been greatest saved for a 12 months or so down the road as soon as the sport establishes itself (which, for the file, yours really doesn’t suppose it is going to), however why create a promo for a genuinely interesting product when the top result’s that it’s inevitably going to disappoint a considerable variety of gamers who believed it was actual? And are we actually dwelling in a time now the place we have to learn the smallprint even for one thing that’s alleged to be a trailer presumably depicting one thing that’s truly within the recreation?
It’s like a sneakier, much less harmless model of these April Idiot’s pranks that you just see from builders and publishers round that point of 12 months. However the distinction there may be that they normally announce or promote issues which might be both performed for comedy, or are so absurd as to be unbelievable. What they don’t do is tease one thing not totally inconceivable, one thing that many gamers may very well be understand as including worth, then just about conceal the truth that it’s pretend (that smallprint actually is small, and for part of the video the white font is conveniently masked by a splash of yellow graphic within the background).
It’s a weird advertising transfer that simply appears to have a terrific huge ‘L’ constructed into it—build up pleasure, then plunging into disappointment.
Black Flags And Purple Flags
With Cranium and Bones already receiving a lukewarm reception from reviewers, and never many individuals having religion that it may emerge from from its 11-year growth hell into the strong service recreation Ubisoft needs it to be, promoting issues that don’t exist that would genuinely make the sport extra fascinating, solely to whisper proper on the finish of the trailer ‘However you may’t have it’ simply leaves a foul style within the mouth; it’s a little bit of a dick transfer.
Nevertheless it’s additionally not that stunning, on condition that Cranium and Bones is a recreation outlined by misdirection. From its a number of modifications in precise route because the begin of its troubled growth, to some actually fairly dangerous in-game design selections just like the resource-gathering mini-game and horribly sparse on-land components, to this advert that taunts gamers with issues the sport doesn’t have, Ubisoft has by no means appeared certain about fairly what to do with Cranium and Bones (aside from model it a ‘Quadruple-A’ recreation and promote it in an underhand method).
