Amid financial struggles and project cancellations, Ubisoft’s ambitious title Skull and Bones marks its second year with a massive kraken celebration.

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Here are three key points: First, Ubisoft is so eager to cut costs after a rough financial stretch that it’s making drastic changes. Second, while Steam player counts are more visible than console numbers, they don’t tell the whole story, especially with subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and Ubisoft+. Third, Ubisoft has a track record of supporting some lower-performing games over time, just not The Crew.

That said, I was genuinely surprised to find out that Skull and Bones, Ubisoft’s high-profile AAAA title, has not only weathered a significant company overhaul but has also launched a substantial Year 2 update, despite currently having just 522 concurrent players on Steam. For context, that’s about 11% of the player count for 2017’s For Honor, which has a similar user review score. Maybe the chaos on land didn’t quite reach the seas.

Skull and Bones hasn’t turned into the blockbuster hit Ubisoft was hoping for, nor has it become a long-lasting staple like Rainbow Six: Siege. After enduring six delays, over seven years of development, mixed messaging, and a launch that received lukewarm to negative reviews (our review noted it was too grindy for minimal reward), it would be easy to assume that Skull and Bones is merely in maintenance mode—keeping things afloat while delaying CEO Yves Guillemot’s next round of criticism.

However, Ubisoft Singapore is actively working on it, and the Year 2 update actually sounds intriguing.

The new season, titled Eye of the Beast, introduces a kraken boss with “five battle phases” and massive tentacles that can attack multiple ships simultaneously, demanding better coordination from pirate crews to defeat it. This seems like the kind of challenge Skull and Bones was always meant to offer.

Players can now take a new ship called the Corvette into battle against the kraken. This vessel is the second large-class ship in the game and is part of the new Smuggler’s Pass reward track, indicating that Ubisoft is still fully committed to its live service model.

Quality-of-life improvements include new inventory tabs for cargo and warehouses, the ability to manage your ship without docking, rear weapons for smaller ships, and “more immersive weapon ballistics.” I’m curious how one makes cannons and ballistas feel more immersive.

Just to clarify, this isn’t the two-year anniversary of Skull and Bones; that milestone will arrive on August 22, with a returning event called the Founding running through March 10, paving the way for summer. But for Year 2 of a game that many didn’t expect to see released, I’d be lying if I said this doesn’t sound like genuine content.

The creator of Rayman has casually hinted at a potential remake for the classic 1995 platformer, suggesting it might join the rumored revival of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag as yet another poorly-kept Ubisoft secret.