Skull and Bones release date delay isn’t all bad news
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Ubisoft has again announced a delay for its swashbuckling action-adventure game Skull and Bones, but it’s not all bad news.
The Skull and Bones release date has been pushed back to March 9, 2023, but Ubisoft has announced an open beta to smooth things out. In the past month, some PC players (myself included) have been playtesting with a very strict NDA, but the open beta will open the doors to everyone and presumably across all platforms.
We expected Skull and Bones to be released on November 8, so it’s quite a delay. That said, the holiday season is a busy time for game releases and the competition is fierce. But with God of War Ragnarok, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet all set around the same time, it might be best to push the date back.
It’s going to be a beta
Skull and Bones was first announced in 2017 and should have been released the following year (which had its own delay) alongside the similarly nautical theme Sea of Thieves. It was supposed to launch on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but now comes exclusively to PC and current-gen consoles.
Ubisoft insists the game development is complete and the extra time “will be used to further polish and balance” using the feedback gathered from the technical tests and the Insider program. Both have been going on for the past few weeks.
We’re now looking at a five-year delay in total, but unlike the MIA Beyond Good and Evil 2, at least we know the game is on its way to a release date, even if the path is choppy. I can’t share my experience with the playtest, but an open beta of Skull and Bones is a wise choice.
An open beta could also keep people interested in Skull and Bones during the five months of waiting. There are enough big hitters coming out during that time that Ubisoft’s pirate game could easily be pushed to the back of our collective consciousness. If the game is as good as Ubisoft thinks it is, the open beta will be great for drawing people in and drumming up some pre-orders.
Ubisoft hasn’t shared the details of the Skull and Bones open beta yet, so we’ll be keeping our eyes on the horizon and letting you know as soon as they’re announced.