The pirate game Skull and Bones by Ubisoft has been in development for already 6 years. A leaked trailer now shows gameplay for the first time, which partially resembles Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
This is what the leak reveals: After many years of silence, there is now new information about the lost multiplayer game, Skull and Bones, from Ubisoft. A Reddit user leaked a whopping 6 minutes of gameplay footage in the subreddit r/GamingLeaksandRumours.
The video shows a “Technical Test Build” of the game, accompanied by comments on features and gameplay, and seems to be a kind of unreleased trailer. The gameplay, animations, and UI strongly resemble Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Originally, Skull and Bones was intended to be a spin-off of AC4, but it was expanded into a standalone game.
The setting of the game places you in the Indian Ocean during the “Golden Age of Piracy.” You start as a small unknown pirate and work your way up by plundering other ships, hoarding treasures, and generally behaving like a real pirate.
- You can complete missions alone or in groups of up to three players, which give you loot and reputation.
- There will be world events that players can participate in.
- A crafting system allows you to create new ships, outfits, ammunition, and provisions for your journeys.
- You can collect resources such as wood and valuable minerals or hunt animals for meat and leather.
- A mood system shows you how well your crew is feeling. If you don’t provide for them, they can mutiny and take over the ship.
- Your ship can be equipped with cannons and tailored to specific needs.
If you lose your ship, you also lose part of the reputation and goods that you have plundered. You can recover this part by returning to the place where your ship sank, but other players can do that too.
How reliable is this leak? Ubisoft has already confirmed that the leak contains footage from Skull and Bones. In a statement to Kotaku, Ubisoft announced:
We confirm that this is a small glimpse into our upcoming game, Skull and Bones. We recently conducted a technical test for the game, and some details of that have been made public. This footage comes from an early version of the game and does not reflect the quality and features of the final game. We will share more details about the game soon.
Therefore, the information from the leak should still be taken with caution, as it is unclear which features will make it into the final game.
When will Skull and Bones be released? There is still no release date and no approximate timeframe for when the game might be released. After Skull and Bones has been postponed multiple times and even rebooted in 2020, the chances of an imminent release seem rather slim.
However, the official Twitter account of the game tweeted after the leak that players should “keep their eyes on the horizon.” And according to the PR statement from Ubisoft, there should be “new official information soon.”
