Ubisoft have confirmed open-world pirate game Skull & Bones will launch next fiscal year; April 2022 to March 2023.
While no public statement has been made; VGC reports during a full-year earnings call on May 11th, Ubisoft confirmed the game would be released during its next fiscal year. Based on the dates of the current fiscal year on the Ubisoft investor website; this means Skull & Bones will launch sometime in April 2022 to March 2023.
“We strongly believe in the team’s creative vision and they have been given an increasingly ambitious mandate for the game,” stated chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet. “Production led by [Ubisoft] Singapore has been advancing well over the past 12 months and the promise is better than ever. The additional time will allow the team to fully deliver on its vision.”
CEO Yves Guillemot stated his high faith for Ubisoft Singapore.
“The Singapore studio has been developing for a long time a big part of the Assassin’s Creed franchise so it’s a really good studio.
What we have been doing to make sure they could really come strongly with Skull & Bones is we increased the associate studios that are working with them at the moment so there’s a good and big team now working on the game and the last 12 months have really been good in terms of the way things were coming along, so we are confident they can really bring something really exceptional for the market.”
Duguet added how Ubisoft Singapore “developed unique experience in naval combat contributing to Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag.”
The game was initially announced back in 2017, but details on the game since have been few and far between aside from multiple delays. The game also skipped E3 2019, and was not seen during the Ubisoft Forward press conference in 2020.
We previously reported claims from VGC that “according to development sources speaking under the condition of anonymity,” the development of Skull & Bones was rebooted due to not standing out among Ubisoft’s portfolio of in-development open-world games; now moving towards a live game model (also known as “Games as a Service”).
This means a game world that will change over time with updates, including being shaped actions made by players; reportedly also being inspired by the social aspect and “live storytelling” of Fortnite. Ubisoft stated in the same earnings call that they will be producing “high-end free-to-play games,” but not sacrificing their AAA portfolio.
Ubisoft officially stated there will be more news on Skull & Bones in 2021, though production “has been in full swing with a new vision,” as they “dreamt something bigger.” Managing Director Hugues Ricour of Ubisoft Singapore, who are developing Skull & Bones, was been removed from his position after a “leadership audit” in late November 2020.
Ubisoft also recently announced their next E3 2021 conference, Ubisoft Forward, would premiere June 12th.
Skull & Bones is in development for Windows PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
