Skull & Bones open beta begins February 8

The MDI 2024 starts this Friday, February 16th! Here's what you need to know.

Every video game developer, even the most successful ones out there, has a game that sometimes “haunts them” because they work on it so much or have tried so hard to make it “worthy,” yet it doesn’t come out the way they desired. Furthermore, it doesn’t come out in a way that pleases fans, and thus, no one wins. The irony is that you could say that about SEVERAL video game titles in the last year alone, showing a rather disturbing trend in the video game industry. But today, we’re talking about Skull & Bones, the pirate game that Ubisoft has been toiling on for over a decade.

We almost don't want to believe it, but it looks like Skull and Bones really will be launching on 16th February. After that long and difficult journey, Ubisoft's oft-delayed pirate action game is almost ready to drop anchor. Just before that happens, though, all players will be able to take it for a spin for free via an open beta test.

I haven’t followed the development of Skull and Bones too closely over the years; I’d see the pirate game emerge at a show with a new trailer or demo, and then sink back beneath the waves with delay after delay. So when Ubisoft opened the game to the public with an open beta recently, I was intrigued to see how the close-to-final product looked. I’ve been known to enjoy a spot of piracy, and Ubisoft has the incredible Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag in its back catalogue, after all.

Like spotting the first sign of shore after years adrift, Skull and Bones has finally, actually found its way to launch. Six separate delays and several different concepts that were forced to walk the plank might’ve made you understandably apprehensive about Ubisoft’s long-brewing pirate game, but I’ve already found a yo-ho-whole lot to be excited about after spending nearly 30 hours with its surprisingly unconstrained open beta this past weekend. The 17th-century Indian Ocean works well as avast open world to be explored and plundered, the RPG mechanics are (briny) deep with opportunities for buildcrafting alongside your fellow scurvy dogs, and the naval combat you’ll spend bucca-nearly all your time on the high seas engaging with is tactical and consistently entertaining. Aside from the expected instability one usually encounters with a beta for an online game, the only red flags so far are the lackluster story and a list of endgame activities that feel like they could become repetitive in short oar-der. I won’t be able to complete my voyage until the full version sets sail later this week, but I’m already excited to sea more.

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.

Beginning February 2, the arena gates will open for the 2024 Dragonflight Season 3 Arena World Championship (AWC)! Tune in to the first two Cups on Twitch and YouTube to see how far the gladiators will go.

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.

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.

The Final Fantasy XIV Online open beta will begin on February 21sts, Square Enix has confirmed. However, it is only open to new players who have not played Final Fantasy XIV Online before, meaning players with existing accounts on other platforms will not be able to log into this version of the game until after it has fully launched.

Ubisoft has announced one final open beta test for the upcoming piratical adventures of Skull and Bones, as well as detailing year 1 of their post-launch roadmap.

Ubisoft has announced one final open beta test for the upcoming piratical adventures of Skull and Bones, as well as detailing year 1 of their post-launch roadmap.