It went all into making up the "AAAA" expression. It used to be 3 As, now they are pushing 4, like "it's better than what was already considered the best possible".

From what I've herd Skull & Bones went through development hell. It started as an idea for spinning off a game from Assassin's Creed 4 and the producers kept changing the scope of the game which scrapped previous work each time. Final result was just mediocre and displays a complete lack of vision.

Mismanagement and corpo shenanigans.

Oh, the Ubisoft money was spent to give the French management of Ubisoft a functional international Singapore vacation spot under the guise of being a gaming studio office. Basically it was always fraud against the government of Singapore.

Passion. Indie devs make the game they want to make and play. Tripple ... sorry, quadruple A developers have shareholder value in mind.

Some say Marketing, some say Management, some say DEI.
Truth is, it was Time.
The game began development in 2013, being initially envisioned as an expansion of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, then an MMO spinoff title under the name Black Flag Infinite. Then it became its own project

2/2 assets because the scope of the game suddenly shifted after a C-suite meeting. Models, music, code, functions all get binned as they switch to the next trending buzzword. On the otherhand indie studios get an idea, and more or less stick with it until the project is complete.

The management is at fault, but not because of DEI, but because they can't manage large projects. AAAA development has a constantly shifting scope, trying to keep up with trends, rather then sticking to an idea. Devs complain all the time about how management forced them to abandon completed 1/2

idiot chuds would say some bullshit about the money going to people of color and women or somesuch antisocial garbage but the real answer is c-suite and shareholder dividends. everyone purchasing these games is subsidizing this

Management mostly.

The DEI consulting teams that promise free money for those DEI grants cost a ton of money. A company like Sweet Baby Inc will quickly jack up the price, cost, having to have the game essentially remade, and then you'll be luck if there is any budget left to make the game.

Marketing.