By 2017, the studio tried to reign in its ambitions to focus on ship combat, and Skull & Bones was once again reborn, this time as a session-based shooter modeled after Rainbow Six Siege but with boats. This was the version that was revealed at E3 2017, but Ubisoft wasn’t ready to ditch dreams of a grander pirate exploration game just yet. It would still need a world and quests beyond a monetizable PVP grind. So in 2018, Skull & Bones returned to E3 with a PVE free roam mode called “Hunting Grounds.” Here, similar to The Division’s “Dark Zones,” players could loot hideouts, fight one another, or work together to take on more powerful AI opponents.