Skull and Bones Has Been Delayed Into 2020, Won’t Be At E3

Ubisoft has confirmed yet another delay for its upcoming open-world pirate adventure game Skull and Bones. The game’s new release timeframe pushes it into the spring, 2020 season at the earliest. Skull and Bones also won’t be making an appearance of any kind at this year’s E3 expo.

Skull and Bones Delayed Again

Skull and Bones delayed into 2020

Ubisoft confirmed the Skull and Bones delay during its most recent earnings call. A subsequent tweet on the game’s official Twitter account also announced the delay. The nitty gritty specifics of why Ubisoft chose to delay Skull and Bones weren’t disclosed. However, Ubisoft’s tweet seems to indicate that the game needs more time to bake.

Speaking with GameSpot, Ubisoft also mentioned how iteration often leads to delays:

“For new IPs, it is common to have evolutions of creative vision and this requires more development time.”

Ubisoft first unveiled Skull and Bones to the world at E3 2017. The roguish seafaring adventure game was originally slated to launch in 2018, but was later delayed into 2019. Now, with this second delay, the earliest Skull and Bones could arrive is April of 2020. It’s a disappointing situation for sure, but then more bake time hopefully means a better experience at launch.

Skull and Bones is being developed by Ubisoft’s Singapore studio, which makes perfect sense when you consider the studio’s pedigree. Ubisoft Singapore also crafted the naval combat sequences for 2013’s pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. In many ways, Skull and Bones is just an extension of that same naval pirate gameplay, sans Assassin’s Creed influences.

In other Ubisoft news, the Assassin’s Creed property is doing quite well. In fact, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey helped Ubisoft garner over $2 billion in profits in 2018. The studio is also ramping up for the next major Rainbow Six Siege content update, Operation Phantom Sight. The upcoming content update will add in two new playable operators, including the terrifying Nøkk.