The Skull and Bones Ship's Wheel Controller Could Change the Way You Sail Its Seas
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It has taken Ubisoft more than ten years to ship Skull and Bones, and the final game is doing very little to innovate on the idea of a pirate game. That might just change with Ubisoft’s latest idea, which is to graft the working pieces of a game controller to an actual ship wheel. If you think the PS5’s DualSense controller lets you feel things on a deeper level, wait till you see what Ubisoft has cooked up.
Called the “Skull and Bones Ship's Wheel Controller”, this monstrosity, or beauty, depending on how you look at it aims you really make you feel like a pirate singing sea shanties while sailing the high seas. The only catch? It’s not real. At least not yet.
"The new era of sailing is here," says Ubisoft in its promotional post, but there are no other details regarding the legitimacy of the controller's existence. A footnote on the trailer reveals that the controller has been developed for promotion only.
It’s still a nice concept though, with some ingenious design work going into integrating the D-pad and precision controls on its handles. The wheel also has what Ubisoft is calling “Velocity paddles”, with a “Shanty Mode” to top it off.
Ubisoft has been fighting an uphill battle selling the very idea of Skull and Bones to hardcore players. Its lengthy development time aside, the concept just seems to have worn out, with other games like Sea of Thieves already fulfilling that fantasy. Heck, Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flas did some things better when it comes to ship combat.
Related: Skull and Bones - How To Find Relics of the Past Treasure
While the ship’s wheel controller is just a promotional idea, it could become an accessory that would aid the game’s sales and cultural relevance. We don’t get crazy accessories like the Guitar Hero controller for consoles anymore, so why not restart that trend with this one?
At least Xbox is still keeping the trend alive with things like the pizza-scented controller. While it would be nice to see PlayStation make weird offshoot controllers, that just doesn’t seem like a possibility at this point. At least Ubisoft understands the fun factor of these products, and we’ll gladly take the Skull and Bones wheel controller, even if it’s just an idea.
Skull and Bones is out now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles.
