Skull and Bones production is in "full swing with a new vision", Ubisoft confirms
The pirate reboot won't be making an appearance at Ubisoft Forward
The sea-faring pirate adventure Skull and Bones is still very much in the works, with Ubisoft Singapore creative director Elisabeth Pellen confirming that production "has been in full swing with a new vision."
The news came in a post on Ubisoft's official website, where Pellen stated that Skull and Bones won't be making an appearance during the Ubisoft Forward showcase, which is happening later today on September 10. While we won't be seeing any swashbuckling ship sinking just yet, Ubisoft has confirmed it plans to present Skull and Bones "sometime in future", with the assurance that "it will be worth the wait."
The post also addresses why the launch of the game had to be postponed, citing that the development team "simply needed more time".
"We dreamt something bigger for Skull & Bones, and these ambitions naturally came with bigger challenges. These difficulties resulted in necessary delays for our game. Critical questions needed to be addressed over the past several months such as: how do we modernize the classic pirate fantasy? How do we ensure a more immersive and visceral experience? How do we create cool and memorable moments in-game? For most of these questions to be answered, it was clear that we needed more development time."
The reboot was first announced back in 2017 during E3, and recently updates about the game have been relatively quiet, with the exception of news that emerged suggesting that Skull and Bones is reportedly going in a new direction that's more akin to a blend of Fortnite and Sea of Thieves.
While this still hasn't been confirmed, this latest update about the game's development does state that it has "evolved from its original idea to what it is now," with new team members joining the project to bring the game to life. What that will shape up to be remains to be seen, but with its delay, it's looking more and more likely that we'll see it end up on the next-gen Xbox Series X and PS5 as well as current-gen consoles.
"We're proud of the work we've done and we hope you will be too when you see more of Skull and Bones at our comeback next," Pellen writes. "Until then, on behalf of everyone in the Skull and Bones team around the world, keep safe and we will see again soon!"
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I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at GamesRadar+. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I'm not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good.