If a new report is to be believed, Ubisoft may be about to set a new Skull and Bones release date. This will mark, at least, Ubisoft’s seventh attempt at getting its beleaguered pirate adventure game out the door.
The troubled open-world pirate adventure began development at Ubisoft Singapore a decade ago. It began life as a multiplayer naval warfare game spun off from the popular ship-to-ship combat of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. This was the shape the game took when I played it at E3 2017, about a year before it dropped a follow-up trailer and then vanished beneath the waves.
Several years and an internal reckoning with abuse that claimed many senior scalps passed before it reappeared in a wildly different form: a third-person open-world pirate adventure set in the Indian Ocean. The game was set to launch on November 8, 2022, before being delayed to March 9, 2023. In January, it was delayed into Q3-Q4, 2024 after Ubisoft titles like Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 underperformed.
Now, it appears Ubisoft is gearing up for one more try. According to Insider Gaming, Ubisoft Singapore managing director Darryl Long confirmed that the game will ship before the end of fiscal year (ie January-March, 2024). This corroborates an earlier announcement from Ubisoft during its October earnings call that Skull and Bones would set a release date during this window.
Insider, however, goes one step further, claiming it has obtained details of a Premium Edition of the game. This reported Premium Edition apparently comes with three days of early access that begins on February 13, 2024. If Insider Gaming’s reporting is accurate, it would mean Skull and Bones will launch on February 16, 2024.
It goes on to assert that an announcement isn’t far off, possibly as close as The Game Awards in a couple of weeks’ time.
We shall see.
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