'Skull & Bones' gets another release date at The Game Awards

Skull & Bones has received yet another release date at The Game Awards 2023. It’s the game’s sixth planned launch following a series of delays.

Skull & Bones is set to release on February 16 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Owners of the premium edition of the game will be able to play the game three days earlier, on February 13.

In addition to this new release date, it was also announced that a new closed beta will run between December 15 and December 18, available on all platforms that Skull & Bones will be launching on.

Skull & Bones began development in 2013 and was first revealed during Ubisoft‘s E3 2017 press conference. The game was originally slated for 2018, before being delayed into 2019. Since then the game has held release dates in 2021, 2022, and 2023, but has slipped from date to date.

A 2021 report from Kotaku alleged that the reason the game wasn’t scrapped at Ubisoft was due to a deal with the Singapore government.

The report stated that Ubisoft Singapore must hire a specific quota of people to be given government subsidies and that the outlet also has to launch multiple original new IPs over the next few years.

“Nobody knew what the fuck they were doing,” one former developer told the outlet about their time on the project.

When asked for comment by Kotaku, Ubisoft stated that the “Skull & Bones team are proud of the work they’ve accomplished on the project” and that “any unfounded speculation about the game and decisions being made only works to demoralize the team who are working very hard to develop an ambitious new franchise that lives up to the expectations of our players”

“Over the past year, we’ve made significant changes to our policies and processes to create a safe and more inclusive workplace and empower our teams to create games that reflect the diversity of the world we live in,” the statement added.

In other news, Sega announced five reimaginings of classic titles at The Game Awards 2023. Elsewhere, Hideo Kojima announced he is collaborating with director Jordan Peele on a new title coming to Xbox starring actresses Sophia Lillis and Hunter Schafer