Ubisoft has delayed a “big game” that’s probably Star Wars Outlaws – also Skull & Bones

26.10.2023 - 21:53 / thesixthaxis.com / Ubisoft

Ubisoft’s latest earnings report has delayed two of the company’s upcoming games, with Skull & Bones now definitely not coming out before the end of 2023, and a mystery “big game” that many are speculating to be Star Wars Outlaws.

Announced with a 2024 release date already, the speculation here is that Star Wars Outlaws was intended to release in the first few months of the year, but that it has now been pushed back to fiscal year 2024-25.

Star Wars Outlaws has had some good showing since its announcement and reveal this summer, with Massive Entertainment crafting a broad rendition of the Star Wars galaxy for players to be rapscallions in, exploring the criminal underground that is rife with activity in a time between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Its gameplay reveal during “not-E3” was particularly impressive.

While Skull & Bones didn’t have a firm release date, it’s was expected to come out in 2023 as part of Ubisoft’s plan to launch it in “early 2023-24”. If we ignore the “early” bit, then they can still hit that particular milestone for investors, but this is still yet another delay for a game that has now been in development for over a decade.

Skull & Bones is a multiplayer sea combat game, making use of similar technology to the sea-based Assassin’s Creed IV as it was originally intended as an expansion for Black Flag. It’s been in development since 2013, has been repeatedly over budget, and should have originally launched in 2018. The fact we’re here over five years later without any sign of the final release date is certainly a concern for Ubisoft, but you have to imagine that they’re unwilling to give up on all of the money they’ve already invested when it is presumably so close to being finished.

At the very least, it’s been in a significant number of external players’ hands over the past year, with a closed beta held in August, so you’d have to assume they are still in that final stretch.

Two game delays isn’t all that bad, considering that Ubisoft does still have a healthy batch of games coming out this fiscal year. Alongside Skull & Bones (hopefully), there’s Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, Just Dance 2024, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – that’s easily the biggest bet for the company.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot also said the company is “pleased with the sales momentum” of Assasin’s Creed Mirage and The Crew Motorfest, both of which released in the last few months.

Source: Ubisoft