Matt Wales
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As part of its latest earnings report – for the first half of its fiscal year 2023-24 – Ubisoft has announced yet another delay for Skull and Bones, with the beleaguered pirate adventure now expected to arrive sometime in the first few months of 2024.
Skull and Bones has been in development since 2013, but the game has seen repeated delays following its official unveiling in 2017. Most recently, Ubisoft shifted the game’s release from this March to an unspecified “early” point in its fiscal year 2023-24 in order to create a “much more polished and balanced experience and to build awareness”.
Skull and Bones has received a closed beta since then, but word on a revised release date has remained conspicuously absent – and Ubisoft has now announced a delay into Q4 of its current financial year, meaning it’s expected to arrive sometime within the January-March 2024 period. No reason was provided for this latest delay.
Skull and Bones isn’t the only game to see a delay in Ubisoft’s latest earnings report. Its mystery “large game”, which first appeared on its release list back in May and was originally due to launch before the end of its current fiscal year on 31st March 2024, has now also been pushed back. The title – which has been reported to be Massive Entertainment’s promising Star Wars: Outlaws – will now launch in Ubisoft’s next financial year, meaning some time after next April.
That means Ubisoft’s remaining release slate for its current fiscal year is now as follows: Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Just Dance 2024, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, and Skull and Bones. Free-to-play titles Rainbow Six Mobile, The Division Resurgence, and XDefiant are also scheduled to arrive before 31st March next year.
Elsewhere in its earnings report, Ubisoft talked more about its ongoing “cost reduction plan” which it launched as part of a “targeted restructuring” programme following disappointing financial results back in January. The publisher says a combination of restructuring and “tight control on recruitments” has resulted in a headcount reduction of more than 1,300 employees around the world between September 2022 and September 2023. It does not specify how that figure is split between departures and layoffs.
In a note accompanying today’s earnings report, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company is “pleased with the sales momentum” demonstrated by the recently launched Assasin’s Creed Mirage and The Crew Motorfest. Guillemot also notes its cloud streaming rights agreement with Activision Blizzard – implemented by Microsoft to appease UK regulator concerns around its $69BN acquisition of Activision – has now been finalised.