Five years after it was first announced and nearly a decade after development began, Skull and Bones has finally been brought to us by Ubisoft. Get ready to skim the seas in this explosive novelty.
[Mis à jour le 7 juillet 2022 à 20h38] Yaarr! The pirates are back. Ubisoft introduced us to Skull and Bones, its new original title from its Singapore studios. After chaotic development and various direction changes in its development, Skull and Bones promises to be a multiplayer open-world survival game. The player will be able to build his destiny and his flotilla there in order to become one of the most feared pirates of the Indian Ocean. In addition to explanations from developers, we were treated to some rather impressive first gameplay images of this original title, which we explain everything to you.
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A presentation of about fifteen minutes enlightened us on the exact nature of the gameplay of Skull and Bones. The game puts you in the shoes of a castaway, destitute, trying to survive in a hostile environment. Your goal? Build a ship, gather a crew, develop your reputation and unlock new equipment in an open world populated by more or less hostile NPCs and other players. The progression system is based on your reputation. By completing certain contracts, you can accumulate reputation and thus gain access to new ships, weapons and equipment.
Of course, you can fully customize your pirate, your ship and your crew. You will be able to control the weapons of your ship, manage the morale of your crew to avoid mutinies and accumulate outfits to become the most stylish pirate of the 18th century. When it comes to threats in the world of Skull and Bones, you’ll need to watch out for privateers who relentlessly hunt down pirates, but also other players who might just be interested in the contents of your hold. It will also be possible to join forces with other players and form flotillas to carry out certain missions.
The fights seem for the moment limited to the only cannonades, the melee fights being confined to kinematics of boarding at sea and looting on land. Amassing resources and exchanging them for new weapons and new ships, discovering treasures indicated by treasure maps, the title seems to adopt and push the basics of Sea of Thieves to provide a vibrant world, an experience close to an MMO also including a solo mode, and of course elements of PvP. The game is defined as a “live-multiplayer” experience, meaning a game service with different events during its different seasons. The mention of a battle-pass has not yet been made, but our little finger tells us that we can expect it when the game is released.
The game had a chaotic development, passed from hand to hand since 2013 before ending up as Ubisoft Singapore’s first major project. Decision-making changes that have resulted in a strong delay of the game, announced for the first time at the E3 2017 show. But Skull and Bones has finally received an official release date! The game will be released on November 8, 2022 on next-gen consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series) and PC only. PS4 and Xbox One players are unfortunately not offered versions of the game.
Skull and Bones is still in development and offers players the opportunity to participate in the various playtests that will take place throughout the year. To do this, you will need to go to this page and select the platform on which you plan to play the game (PC, PS5 or Xbox Series X|S). You will then receive instructions by email, if you are selected, on the different ways of accessing the different playtests of the game. For the moment, no information has been sent on the dates of these test phases, but with a release scheduled for November, they may well be coming very soon.