More than a decade after development first began, Skull and Bones is finally arriving on console and PC.
25.01.2024 - 18:45 / gameinformer.com / Ubisoft Singapore / Wesley Leblanc
I've been tracking developer Ubisoft Singapore's naval warfare multiplayer game, Skull and Bones, since its reveal years ago, both as a massive fan of all things pirates and someone who specifically loved the high seas action of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I wrote Game Informer's Skull and Bones cover story back in 2022, and have played the game several times since then in previews, betas, and more.
Despite what various delays had me believing, Skull and Bones is actually shaping up to be, at the very least, a fun and competent experience. Because I've played so many of its disparate parts rather than the whole, I believe there's something really good in the game. However, without playing the full package, it's tough to say how it all comes together, a critical aspect for any live-service multiplayer game.
I'm going to dive into Season 1's offerings and some of the endgame content I experienced in this final preview, but if you'd rather watch some gameplay and hear me talk about my time playing it this time around, check out the Skull and Bones New Gameplay Today below:
The first season of Skull and Bones is called Raging Tides, and this season and three following it – Chorus of Havoc, Into the Dragon's Wake, and Shadow of the Deep – are all part of the game's Year 1 roadmap. Collectively, Year 1 is the Rise of the Kingpins, Ubisoft tells me.
In Raging Tides, players are up against the pirate kingpin Phillippe Le Peste, a master of potent African poisons. He's attracted to the region after hearing about the spoils you've captured as the area's kingpin and as such, sends skirmishers and headhunters your way to put an end to your reign. Eventually, after you take down enough of his armada, threatening his own strangle on the seas, La Peste will fight you in the La Potence World Event, which is the penultimate fight against the kingpin on the Indian Ocean. This leads to one final climactic battle against La Peste that will end the season.
I didn't take part in that final battle in this hands-on preview of Skull and Bones, but I did play through the La Potence World Event. I am impressed with how unique this boss fight felt, especially compared to the action against other ships in the game. Admittedly, I didn't expect anything more than the third-person (ship?) arcade shooter action the rest of the game features – how much more varied can firing weapons from a ship while controlling said ship be? It turns out, with some queues pulled from MMO games, very.
La Peste uses poison attacks to keep me on the move, forcing my tank class ship to be played differently. I can't hunker down and hold a spot while throwing cannonballs, mortars, and torpedos La Peste's way. He targets not just me, but various
More than a decade after development first began, Skull and Bones is finally arriving on console and PC.
Despite being delayed six times so far, Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot is highly confident in Skull and Bones, so much so that he is tempting fate, invoking the dreaded «AAAA» moniker. The last developer we can recall doing that was the ill-fated Striking Distance Studios with The Callisto Protocol, a game with a sad ending.
In Skull and Bones, although the Open Beta only lasted a few days, it was just enough time for some players to achieve some pretty awesome feats. Like EagleEGamer, who became a millionaire.
It’s been another cold week, and one that’s proven perfectly suited to wrapping up and playing video games. I’ve been working my way through Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, and we’ll have the review for that one on Monday. Other than that, there’s been a chunk of Suicide Squad, a heap of Naruto X Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections, a spot of Granblue Fantasy Relink, a smidgen of Dave the Diver and a soupçon of Street Fighter 6 as well.
Continuing their great prank of pretending they plan to release Skull And Bones, Ubisoft today launched an open beta for their multiplayer open-world pirate boat game. The free beta will run until Sunday night, after which Ubisoft will presumably delay the game for another seventeen years while once again redesigning the whole thing. When you buy your great grandniece Skull And Bones for her 17th birthday, you'll be able to tell her you were there for the mythical open beta of '24.
During the Q&A session of a recent earnings call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot defended the decision to price upcoming pirate-themed multiplayer title Skull and Bones at $70 despite the game having live-service trappings.
After beginning development in 2013 and numerous delays later, Ubisoft Singapore’s seafaring pirate action RPG, Skull & Bones, will finally set sail next week. In the meantime, you can watch the launch trailer and even jump in early with the game’s open beta, which kicks off today.
Ubisoft's live-service pirate ship game Skull and Bones is a «quadruple-A» project, company boss Yves Guillemot has said.
Thar be no room for landlubbers here. Get ready to start a golden age pirate’s journey taking you from shipwrecked nobody to kingpin when Skull and Bones launches February 16 on PlayStation 5, with an Open Beta running from February 8-11*. The development team at Ubisoft Singapore has been hard at work ensuring that the Skull and Bones experience is as immersive as possible on PS5, thanks to features like 3D audio, adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and more.
Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot has defended the $70 price tag for Skull and Bones, calling it a “quadruple-A game”.
While the character customization at the beginning of Skull and Bones is well designed thanks to the water’s reflection and shipwreck environment, it fails to let you see your entire character. You should save your time because there’s a much better character customization waiting for you after the tutorial.
Skull and Bones is a pirate game, so people will instantly assume that it has PvP, myself included. However, the game doesn’t tackle PvP the same as many had expected, so you can’t simply attack any other crew you see. So, how does PvP work?