Skull and Bones, the open world pirate game Ubisoft unveiled at E3 2017, has suffered another pushback. The company said in its full-year 2018-19 earnings statement that the game, which was delayed last year into the 2019-20 fiscal year, has now been pushed to sometime after that.
There's nothing more specific to go on—"The release of Skull and Bones has been postponed to after 2019-20" is the full statement—and that far-off open-endedness (Ubi's 2019-20 fiscal year will conclude at the end of March 2020) is worrying for a project that was showing off gameplay two years ago. The Skull and Bones Twitter account wasn't much more helpful, although it did confirm in various tweets that there are currently no target dates for beta testing or release.
We’re going to batten down the hatches and push back on the game’s arrival—this is a challenging news for us all, but it’s what’s needed to make Skull & Bones as awesome as it can be!Our focus remains on quality first and we’re grateful for your undying support ☠️⚔️ pic.twitter.com/ZCt85tY3TGMay 15, 2019
"Our first goal is to make Skull and Bones awesome for our players. We believe in our vision for the game, while also making sure the voice of our community is being heard," Ubisoft tweeted. "As soon as we're ready to share more, we'll do so."
Chris took Skull and Bones for a spin at E3 last year and found it far more combat-focused than Sea of Thieves, his then-and-still seadog sim of choice, but also very promising: There were still a lot of blanks to be filled in, particularly about non-combat activities, but the naval combat "is just as much fun as it was in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed games." (And in case it's not clear, he thinks naval combat in Black Flag and Origins is a lot of fun.)
Ubisoft also said that Skull and Bones will not appear at E3 this year.
