Ubisoft has an “improved” version of ‘Skull & Bones’ that will get fans excited again

Ubisoft has confirmed it has been working on an “improved” version of much-delayed pirate action-adventure game Skull & Bones.

Skull & Bones was first announced at E3 2017, under the development of Ubisoft Singapore, and was supposed to be released in late 2018 for the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, the game has been delayed several times since.

It was due for release last November before its release was pushed back to March 9, 2023. Earlier this year though, Ubisoft delayed Skull & Bones once more. In January, the studio said a release date would be shared “very soon” but over a month later, the game still doesn’t have a planned release.

During a recent earnings call, Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Dugue was answering questions from investors when he was asked about how the sales target for Skull & Bones will be affected by this lengthy development process. “I’m asking because I’ve seen the reviews and they don’t look particularly strong,” added the investor.

“We’ve been very happy with the playtest that we’ve seen in early January [and] we have a very strong improved version to show to players that they haven’t seen yet,” Duguet explained (via PC Gamer). “So this is really what we are going to leverage in the next month to drive more momentum on the game.”

Beyond a handful of private playtests, Ubisoft has only released a few gameplay trailers of Skull & Bones.

Elsewhere in the earnings call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot claimed that the many delays (including Skull & Bones‘) and cancellations the company has announced in recent weeks was a result of the studio working on too many games. 

“We cancelled a few games because we needed to make space for other games that are in development in the company, and that’s really helping all the other games that are progressing well,” Guillemot said.

“Now we feel we have the right number of games, knowing that we will launch a lot of games in financial year ’24 that will also give space for the other games that are on the way in the company.”

Guillemot also suggested industry showcase E3 2023 might not go ahead.

In other news, League Of Legends has confirmed a new pricing model to “make acquiring champions easier for new players”.