The long-delayed Skull and Bones loses its 2022 release date

By George Yang September 28, 2022

Ubisoft has announced that it has delayed its upcoming pirate adventure game, Skull and Bones (again), to March 9, 2023. It was originally slated to launch on November 8 this year.

“Ahoy there, privateers. Our team is hard at work polishing and balancing the experience ahead of the worldwide launch. As a result, we’ve made the tough decision to move our release date to March 9, 2023,” Ubisoft says in a statement. “We’re very eager for you all to get your hands on Skull and Bones and dive in headfirst to the dangerous and exciting world of building your own pirate empire. To give you the best possible experience we’ve decided to take a little more time to make sure we can deliver exactly that.”

pic.twitter.com/2mIjG70sWZ

— Skull and Bones (@skullnbonesgame) September 28, 2022

Ubisoft also says that it will hold an open beta for the game in the near future and will share more details about how to register for it soon.

Skull and Bones was first revealed during E3 2017 and was set to release sometime in 2018. However, the game suffered multiple delays and was finally given a definitive release date of November 8 earlier this year.

Ubisoft Singapore is in charge of the project, but reportedly, there were development issues surrounding it, including studio in-fighting, conflicting directives from Ubisoft HQ, and even sexual harassment. Reportedly, Skull and Bones would’ve been canceled a long time ago, but Ubisoft made a contract with the Singapore government and is obligated to release the game as it had received tax subsidies.

At the very least, Skull and Bones doesn’t have to compete with other big games coming out in November, such as God of War: Ragnarok, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and Sonic Frontiers.

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George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…

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Baldur’s Gate 3’s release date just got delayed and moved up at the same time

A Baldur's Gate 3 character lights the way.

The PC and PS5 versions of Baldur's Gate 3 have gotten new release dates, leading to a weird situation where the game's launch has been moved up and delayed at the same time.
Originally announced for Google Stadia in 2019, Baldur's Gate 3 is a successor to BioWare's classic Dungeons & Dragons RPG franchise and has been in early access on PC since October 2020. Its 1.0 PC release, as well as a PS5 port, were confirmed to launch on August 31 earlier this year, but that is no longer the case. In the latest community update, developer Larian Studios confirmed that Baldur's Gate 3 launches for PC on August 3 and for PS5 on September 6.
Larian admits that "this means the PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released at a time where you’ll have more time to play it," moving its launch away from late August and early September heavy hitters like Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon and Starfield. And now, the new PS5 release date for Baldur's Gate 3 gives PlayStation players a console-exclusive RPG of their own (albeit a temporary one) on the day Starfield comes out.

Still, the September 6 date is technically a delay, which Larian also explained its reasoning behind in the community update. "Baldur’s Gate 3 is targeting 60 frames-per-second, and we’re close to achieving that on the platform but need a bit more extra time," it explained. "We don’t want to compromise on quality and feel it would be a shame to downscale to 30 fps or make other compromises to hit an arbitrary date. We understand that folks may be disappointed with this, but we're close enough to reaching new heights for RPGs on the system that the benefits of a short delay outweigh the downsides of rushing the PS5 release and having to downscale."
So to clarify, Baldur's Gate 3 first launches on PC across Steam, GOG, and Nvidia GeForce Now on August 3. Then, a PS5 port comes out on September 6. Larian Studios also confirms that a Mac version is in the works and that it's "optimistic" about Xbox works once it works through the kinks of getting it to run well on both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

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Spider-Man 2 recently appeared at the May 2023 PlayStation Showcase, so it wasn't surprising that there wasn't any new footage at the Summer Game Fest. However, Insomniac presented new concept art, including one with Peter Parker and Miles Morales fighting side by side and another with the two Spider-Mans fighting Venom.

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The developers of the LA-based zombie game revealed the news via a tweet with a video that highlights a bunch of comments asking if the game was polished and if it will actually ever be released before it confirms that Dead Island 2 has gone gold and is coming out a bit earlier than we currently expected.
https://twitter.com/deadislandgame/status/1625147886643150852
Release dates moving up instead of being delayed are a rarity, with one of the only recent examples being Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Still, the delay makes sense now that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is coming out on April 28. This announcement also feels cathartic after Dead Island 2's rough development. The zombie sequel has notoriously been delayed significantly more than most games. Originally announced in 2014 with a Q2 2015 release window, Dead Island 2 got pushed back again and again, switching developers multiple times and slowly seeming more and more likely to become vaporware.
Deep Silver Dambuster Studios' new version of the game finally reemerged as the big final reveal of Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022, but even after that, the game got delayed one more time to April 28. Even if it's moving its release date up by just a week, the fact that Dead Island 2 has gone gold and even moved its release date up a bit feels like the satisfying end to an excruciatingly long journey. Whether it's good or not, we finally don't have to wait much longer to actually play Dead Island 2.
Dead Island 2 will be released for PC, PS4, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on April 21.