Skull and Bones has been delayed yet again

In a recent financial news update, Ubisoft have announced that they are going to make some changes to their line up, in the wake of the current fiscal world and that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 apparently sold less than they thought.

First the news, which is neither good nor bad, but just is and that is that Ubisoft have cancelled three unannounced games. As they are unannounced, we have no idea what they are, they could have been the next chapters in the Far Cry series or perhaps all-new titles designed to delight gamers of all ages and we shall never know which it was.

The actual sad, but not surprising news is that Skull and Bones has been delayed, yet again. The game has been delayed so many times by now, its earnt enough hole punches in its delayed card to get a free coffee. The following is the statement from the press release:

Players will be able to discover the beauty of Skull and Bones in the upcoming beta phase. The additional time has already paid off and brought impressive improvements to its quality, which has been confirmed by recent playtests. We believe players will be positively surprised by its evolution. We have decided to postpone its release in order to have more time to showcase a much more polished and balanced experience and to build awareness. Skull and Bones will now be released early 2023-24.

As someone who has put a few good hours into the game, I can see where they might want to tighten things up, but at the same time, how many times can a game get delayed, before people get really angry at the developer or worse, just give up on the game entirely.

2023 marks the 10 years since we first learnt about the game, when it was revealed at E3 2013. It then took four more years before we saw any more of it, but it was soon dated for late 2018, then 2019, then sometime after March 2020. But in late 2019 it was announced the game would release between April 2021 and March 2022, but then in May of 2021 another delay was given, pushing the release back another full year. Finally, things were looking up when in July 2022, an actual date was given, November 8, no longer were players limited to a year long release window, but an actual date. Then disaster, in September, just weeks after it was dated, the game was delayed until March 9, 2023 in order to polish the game up some more.

Today’s delay takes the game to some point in the 2023-24 fiscal year, which means anywhere from April 1st 2023 to March 31st 2024 and again for even more polish. The old adage that you can polish a turd and its still a turd comes to mind, because at this point, if the game is not good to go, I don’t think it ever will be.