Skull and Bones gets a new release date – yes, again, for real this time, surely

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It's coming out early next year, allegedly

Skull and Bones screenshot
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Great news — Skull and Bones is releasing on February 16, 2024, as Ubisoft announced at The Game Awards live. 

No, sorry, I don't know if you read that right — I'm not talking about E3 in 2017, when the action-adventure pirate game was first announced, only to be delayed to 2019, then 2020, then the End Times. I'm talking about the 2023 Game Awards, where Ubisoft showed a new trailer informing players they could "conquer oceans together" and "defy legendary pirate myths" by, as an ensuing montage shows, launching a series of rockets off a hunk of 1700s-looking wood. 

I'm talking about the 2023 Geoff Keighley Game Awards, at which Ubisoft promised Skull and Bones could be available to play as early as February 13, so long as you pre-order the premium edition. What? You're hesitant about pre-ordering a game that, after its first round of delays, was nudged to November 8, 2022, and then March 9, 2023 after CEO Yves Guillemot said it needed to be "a much more polished and balanced experience"? 

Okay, fine. Skull and Bones isn't great at being on time. It clearly didn't make its planned March 9 date — that's why we're now working with February 13 at the very earliest. But, think of it this way: Skull and Bones is willing to meet you just in time for Valentine's Day! 

People can change, and I like to think the same logic applies to multiplayer games with controllable, customizable ships and quests set in tranquil, pre-smallpox vaccine waters. You have no reason not to trust Ubisoft this time… or, all right, you have like six reasons, but things are different now. Really! Like, we have smallpox vaccines now. We have a new trailer showcasing cute pirate outfits and a ton of explosives. This is the stuff of romance — I think we're going to make it. For real this time. Surely. 

Before Skull and Bones definitely, totally, absolutely releases next year, familiarize yourself with 30 minutes of informative "narrative gameplay."

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Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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