After a long radio silence, Ubisoft recently spoke about Skull & Bones again for the first time. The pirate game is scheduled for release by spring 2023.
Almost five years ago, Ubisoft announced a new pirate game at E3 2017 with Skull & Bones. The new brand was supposed to transport the sea battles of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag into its own game. So far, however, the plan has not worked out: Skull & Bones was repeatedly postponed and rumours about a restart of the development surfaced.
Now, however, there is a real sign of life from Skull & Bones – even if it is only a small one. In the context of the current annual report, Ubisoft’s chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet addressed the pirate game by name and assumes a release in the near future.
Ubisoft: Very happy about development progress
First it was supposed to come out in 2018, then 2019 – and then it completely disappeared from the radar. Skull & Bones, Duguet admitted according to (Gamesindustry) during a conference call on the occasion of the current business figures, has been in development for a very long time. However, Ubisoft is currently very happy with the current state of the game and the artistic direction.
It’s a promising new IP that focuses on multiplayer first, which in turn fits very well with our strategy of combining multiplayer competition and co-op in a large, open game world with a great fantasy world.
What does that mean? Even if Duguet does not reveal any details, it can be speculated from the statement that Skull & Bones will now primarily be an online-only game. While multiplayer aspects were a central theme back in 2017 when it was announced, the developers also openly talked about a single-player campaign at the time.
Skull & Bones: This is what an insider says about the almost forgotten pirate game
Whether these plans have been completely scrapped in the course of many years of development, or are possibly still alive, cannot be officially answered at the moment. Most recently, however, there have been reports from insiders who have spoken of a PvPvE focus.
Release planned until spring 2023
Ubisoft itself is still holding back with exact details about Skull & Bones. However, that could change soon: Skull & Bones plays an important role in the French publisher’s plans for the 2023 financial year. Just like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the pirate game is scheduled for release between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
So if Skull & Bones is not postponed again, some kind of new announcement should be made in the next few months. First and foremost, of course, there are trade fairs such as E3 or gamescom, both of which are usually held in the summer.
