The long-delayed Skull and Bones loses its 2022 release date

By George Yang Published September 28, 2022

Ubisoft has announced that it has delayed its upcoming pirate adventure game, Skull and Bones (again), to March 9, 2023. It was originally slated to launch on November 8 this year.

“Ahoy there, privateers. Our team is hard at work polishing and balancing the experience ahead of the worldwide launch. As a result, we’ve made the tough decision to move our release date to March 9, 2023,” Ubisoft says in a statement. “We’re very eager for you all to get your hands on Skull and Bones and dive in headfirst to the dangerous and exciting world of building your own pirate empire. To give you the best possible experience we’ve decided to take a little more time to make sure we can deliver exactly that.”

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— Skull and Bones (@skullnbonesgame) September 28, 2022

Ubisoft also says that it will hold an open beta for the game in the near future and will share more details about how to register for it soon.

Skull and Bones was first revealed during E3 2017 and was set to release sometime in 2018. However, the game suffered multiple delays and was finally given a definitive release date of November 8 earlier this year.

Ubisoft Singapore is in charge of the project, but reportedly, there were development issues surrounding it, including studio in-fighting, conflicting directives from Ubisoft HQ, and even sexual harassment. Reportedly, Skull and Bones would’ve been canceled a long time ago, but Ubisoft made a contract with the Singapore government and is obligated to release the game as it had received tax subsidies.

At the very least, Skull and Bones doesn’t have to compete with other big games coming out in November, such as God of War: Ragnarok, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and Sonic Frontiers.

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George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…

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