Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones delayed again, this time by four months

Ubisoft seemingly can’t catch a break when it comes to its ambitious pirate game Skull and Bones. The company just announced a fifth delay to the game, which was previously due to come out this November. The release has now been pushed into 2023, prompting a fresh wave of concerns over the game’s ultimate fate.

The official press release from Ubisoft doesn’t elaborate on exactly why the game is being delayed again, save for a reference to the team “polishing and balancing the experience” and wanting to take more time to deliver “the best possible experience” to fans. It also mentions an upcoming open beta for the game, though details on how and when to sign up for it are yet to emerge.

Skull and Bones was originally revealed at 2017’s E3, with what seems now like a wildly optimistic release window of 2018. In the intervening the game has been delayed multiple times and has even seen its planned gameplay gutted and rebuilt from the ground up after scrapping an initial focus on ship-to-ship combat in favor of the crafting and survival mechanics du jour. It was shown off at this year’s Ubisoft Forward event and was also touted as the first Ubisoft title to be sold at a $70 price tag, which may have contributed to the game’s mixed reception from fans at its most recent events.

One way or another, Skull and Bones is going to have to come out one of these days. Shunting it into 2023 will leave Ubisoft with a remarkably fallow holiday season this year, but it’s possible that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope — one of the company’s few major titles set to release before the end of 2022 — will pick up the slack. At this point, Skull and Bones might almost be considered vaporware, if it weren’t for the continued reassurances by Ubisoft over the last five years that it’s definitely a real game that’s definitely coming out — at some point.