Ubisoft E3 2019: Skull & Bones Isn't At The Show, And It's Delayed Until Next Year

Ubisoft has delayed its pirate-themed ship combat game, Skull & Bones, for a second time. The publisher originally scheduled Skull & Bones for a 2018 launch, but then announced a delay until 2019-2020. Now, Ubisoft is saying the game won't come out until sometime "after 2019/20." Additionally, Skull & Bones will not be a part of Ubisoft's E3 press conference, which is scheduled to take place today, June 10.

Ubisoft revealed the news in a recent earnings report. The vague "after 2019/20" refers to financial periods, as opposed to calendar years, meaning the earliest Skull & Bones might now launch is April 2020. Explaining the delay, Ubisoft told GameSpot: "For new IPs, it is common to have evolutions of creative vision and this requires more development time."

The game's official Twitter account also published a short video talking about the delay and decision to skip E3. Producer Karl Luhe talks about making the game as good as possible and that Ubisoft remains committed to it. The video also features some behind-the-scenes looks at the development of the game. Luhe notes they'll be back "as soon as [they] can" with further updates on the game.

The naval combat game was first revealed at E3 2017, and we came away from both that and the following E3's demo feeling excited. The game is being developed by Ubisoft Singapore, the studio that made Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's ship combat sequences.

There is also a Skull & Bones TV show on the way. On whether the game's new delay will affect the TV show, Ubisoft told GameSpot "the Skull & Bones TV series has no impact on the development of the game--and vice versa."

Ubisoft has quite a lot on the way. Beyond the recently announced Ghost Recon Breakpoint, it's now confirmed it has three unannounced, triple-A games coming early in 2020. It didn't share any details on what those games will be, although it seems likely that we'll learn about at least some of them during Ubisoft's E3 press conference.