Skull and Bones broadsided with another delay, and won't be at E3 2019

Ubisoft's sea-faring action game Skull & Bones has been hit by another delay, as announced during the publisher's latest earnings call. We had hoped that Skull & Bones' naval combat would be among the new games of 2019, and would make an appearance at E3 2019 - but Ubisoft also stated that it won't be showing it as part of its E3 2019 games lineup. 

With the delay, the earliest we would possibly be taking the wheel of our very own ship will be April 2020, as Ubisoft confirmed that the game won't launch until the 2020/2021 fiscal year (but didn't provide any definitive release date). A video posted to Skull & Bones' official Twitter hopes to stem the tide on any disappoints as Ubisoft continues to work on the game. "Rest assured that we are working as hard to ever to make sure the game is going to be as great as possible, and quality remains our number one focus," says producer Karl Luhe. "We will be back as soon as we can with exciting new updates." 

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If you need a refresher, Skull and Bones is essentially the time-honored sailing sections of the Assassin's Creed series broken out into their own multiplayer game, where players control entire ships as the captain and must work together to plunder booty or rid the seas of enemy pirates. After its debut at E3 2017, Skull & Bones was hit with its first big delay in Ubisoft's 2018 financial report, so this delay is a bit of deja vu. What we saw of Skull & Bones at E3 2018 looked promising, but for now, it seems like Sea of Thieves will still be your go-to for high-seas adventure in the foreseeable future, with Rare's game really coming into its own as it enters its second year of updates

As for what we can expect from Ubisoft at E3 2019, Watch Dogs 3 is almost a sure bet, and we're hoping the rumored London setting leads to some bold creative decisions. You likely won't be seeing anything Splinter Cell-related; just yesterday, there was a bit of social media kerfuffle when an Ubisoft developer jokingly teased a new Splinter Cell game, much to the publisher's dismay.

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Lucas Sullivan

Lucas Sullivan is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+. Lucas spent seven years working for GR, starting as an Associate Editor in 2012 before climbing the ranks. He left us in 2019 to pursue a career path on the other side of the fence, joining 2K Games as a Global Content Manager. Lucas doesn't get to write about games like Borderlands and Mafia anymore, but he does get to help make and market them. 

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