Ubisoft has announced via a conference call and a press release (.pdf) on financial targets that has revealed that Skull and Bones has been delayed yet again, moving it into a 2023-24 target window.
The financial release notes that recent game releases have underperformed, and the company is changing up its focus on its largest brands and services in order to foster a stronger long-term picture. What this means is that the company has canceled three unannounced projects and is set to restructure some of its business focus.
While highlights were Rainbow Six Siege, Assassin's Creed, and live services, certain releases were lower than expected, including Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023. What this revision means for Skull and Bones is a new release window, following a beta.
“Players will be able to discover the beauty of Skull and Bones in the upcoming beta phase. The additional time has already paid off and brought impressive improvements to its quality, which has been confirmed by recent playtests. We believe players will be positively surprised by its evolution. We have decided to postpone its release in order to have more time to showcase a much more polished and balanced experience and to build awareness. Skull and Bones will now be released early 2023-24.”
Skull and Bones has been delayed multiple times, followed by a period of silence on the game, and then some new presentations and showcases in 2022, as well as devblogs and details on specs. All of this seemed to point to a release coming. Then, in late September, the game was delayed once again into March 2023, but Ubisoft promised an open beta was supposed to happen “in the near future”..
While it's clear from today's release that there have been playtests going on, given that it is January 2023 and things hadn’t ramped up yet, another delay is not entirely surprising. We’ll have to see if Ubisoft’s 2023-24 window continues to hold.
