4. Skull & Bones – After many delays, is there still hope?
Genre: Pirate-MMO | Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox | Release: Early 2023 to 2024
This is Skull & Bones: The pirate game from Ubisoft has a long development history. Originally, the MMO was announced in 2016 as a reaction to the popular naval battles from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
As these were particularly well received by fans, Ubisoft made it their goal to create a separate game from it. At least in the first trailers in 2016, it sounded like a very early adaptation of an extraction shooter.
Multiple teams were supposed to rush onto a Caribbean map, each player with their own ship. Then they had to find, retrieve, and safely transport a treasure out of the area. Other teams were supposed to hinder you. What today clearly sounds like Escape from Tarkov with pirates was still brand new in 2016.
However, nothing has come of the concept, and much has changed in the game. Now it’s just about looting and leveling in the open world of Skull & Bones, but you can only leave your ship in the hub areas.
There, you collect quests and go alone or together with other pirates on raids against NPCs to obtain materials with which you can upgrade your ship afterward. This can also work entirely without the extraction approach, even though you only play as a ship and not as a person.
So far, the development has gone: Describing the development of Skull & Bones as turbulent would still be underestimating the entire odyssey surrounding the game. Hardly any game that has been so much in the public eye as Skull & Bones has been postponed as often.
Only at the end of last year did Ubisoft decide to push the pirate adventure back for the sixth time. The current date is sometime between early 2023 and 2024, but it is still unclear if this will remain true, especially for this MMO.
- When Skull & Bones was announced in 2016, both fans and developers held high hopes for it. It was promised that the pirate MMO would serve as a service game for 10 to 15 years, as Ubisoft promised it six years ago.
- During development, the entire concept of the game has been changed several times. In June 2017, Ubisoft still attempted to entice players with a single-player campaign that was meant to be more than just a side detail.
- By August 2017, however, they revised this statement. There will no longer be a single-player campaign in Skull & Bones.
- In June 2018, the announcement ofan open beta for the pirate adventure was made, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The game was supposed to be released back in 2019.
- After some people managed to get their hands on the game, it was clear – the game resembles more of a Destiny, and the new focus is on looting and leveling.
- Even a TV series about the game was announced in 2019. However, nothing has been heard from it to date.
- In May 2019, Ubisoft made it clear that Skull & Bones will not be released before April 2020.
- Only in July 2020 did Ubisoft speak about Skull & Bones again. The game was rebooted and is now oriented even more towards a live-service game. A release is now expected in March 2021.
- There have been some snippets of information and a few gameplay videos. In September 2022, Skull & Bones was postponed for the fifth time, this time to March 9, 2023.
- In January 2023, the title was delayed for the sixth time. However, this time there is no exact date. The timeframe is only stated as “early 2023 to 2024”. However, it has been reported that there have been significant advancements in development that should “positively surprise players” (via gameswirtschaft).
This could be Skull & Bones at best: If you turn a blind eye to the past of the MMO and remain optimistic, Skull & Bones holds the potential for a long-lived service game with a nearly unused setting. That pirates can work well has been convincingly demonstrated by Sea of Thieves, even though the game mechanics are entirely different.
Skull & Bones could be a fun adventure in the Caribbean pirate era, possibly even rekindling fans’ memories of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and reviving the hype that surrounded it. If the looting concept and upgrading your ship are fun enough, there could be massive long-term motivation here.
Also, through various game modes, Ubisoft could secure long-term variability and draw new players into the world seas.
This could be Skull & Bones at worst: Given the tumultuous past of the game, it is possible that Skull & Bones either won’t appear in 2023 at all or comes out hastily and half-baked.
Due to the frequent shifting of the game’s focus, it’s conceivable that existing mechanics might not work well together and the pirate adventure simply wouldn’t be enjoyable, which could have fatal consequences, especially for a service game.
This is planned for 2023: Since the pirate MMO is supposed to be released in 2023 (or early 2024), not much more can be expected before then. There may still be one or two playtests available in the form of a beta. If there are no further delays, we could set sail soon.
As Skull & Bones is a live-service game, you can also expect numerous updates after the launch, so there could theoretically be a lot in store for this year. However, we currently cannot say for sure.
Not only does Skull & Bones have problems, but Ubisoft itself is calling for cuts while employees demand higher wages.
On the next page, a title from Blizzard awaits you:
