Ubisoft's beleaguered pirate game Skull & Bones now won't arrive before 2022

Ubisoft has confirmed its long-announced and much-postponed shared-world swashbuckler Skull & Bones is now expected to release in the 2022-2023 financial year.

Originally revealed back at E3 2017, Skull & Bones - which is being developed by Ubisoft Singapore - was initially due to release on Xbox, PS4, and PC sometime the following year. However, it's now been subject to two official delays, once in 2018 and another in 2019.

As part of the latter announcement, Ubisoft told fans, "We're going to batten down the hatches and push back on the game's arrival. This is challenging news for us all, but it's what's needed to make Skull & Bones as awesome as it can be!".

Last year was a comparatively busy one for Skull & Bones news; it first brought reports the game was being extensively reworked with 'live' elements, and was now planned to feature a persistent world - with a shifting cast of character and quests and a greater focus on co-op play - in which player actions would influence an ongoing story.

That was followed by an official update in September, the first in over a year, with Ubisoft confirming it had "dreamt something bigger for Skull & Bones", although details remained elusive. Fans were told more would be revealed sometime this year.

Now, with 2021 well underway, Ubisoft's has offered another update, this time as part of its latest full year earnings call, confirming the beleaguered pirate game is now expected to launch at some point during its 2022-2023 financial year.

It remains to be seen how closely the overhauled Skull & Bones' will resemble its most recent gameplay showing - which happened back all the way back in 2018 - or indeed what platforms it might now be planned for. And as for the "female-driven" TV adaptation once floated by Ubisoft, its fate is anyone's guess.

What we do know, however, is that Ubisoft's confirmed slate of releases for the current financial year otherwise remains pretty much as expected, consisting of Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Rider Republic, free-to-play The Division: Heartland, and Roller Champions.

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