We’ve been talking aboutSkull and Bonessince I was in sixth form seven years ago. It’s been a long time coming, withnumerous delays, restarts in development, and re-reveals, but we’ll finally get to sail its seas next month. However, its lengthy development - which started back in 2013 when it was originally anAssassin’s Creed: Black Flagmultiplayer expansion - has allegedly caused production costs to skyrocket.
A couple of years ago,Kotakureported that development costs had reached a staggering $120 million, with one former developer allegedly saying that things fell apart because “Nobody knew what the f*** they were doing”. According toInsider Gaming, in just three years, Ubisoft spent another $80 million on development.
That makes Skull and Bones one of the most expensive developed games in history, beating outCyberpunk 2077’stotal cost of $174 million (not including marketing), but not quite reachingStar Citizen’s staggering $600 million raised in funding.
Sources reportedly told Insider Gaming that Ubisoft does not expect to make a profit on Skull and Bones, blaming its troubled development on “power-hungry managers” and a constant change in direction. The reason it’s still in the works at all is allegedly because ofa deal with the Singapore government.
Skull and Bones has been delayed six times since it was first revealed at E3 2017. Allegedly, the game showed off back then barely existed (despite being slated to release in 2018) and was subsequently reworked, growing into an online survival-like pirate game. Inevitably, it was delayed to the fiscal year of 2019/2020, with more being shown off at E3 2018. However, Kotaku reported that the versions we saw at both E3s were scrapped, leading to more delays.
Between 2017 and now, it slightly changed its name, shifting from Skull & Bones to Skull and Bones.
It skipped E3 2019 and was delayed to 2022, gearing up to launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. But as we know, that didn’t happen. It was once again pushed back, this time to June 28, 2025, after a technical test in September went sour. But that date came and went and it was delayed again.
If all goes to plan this time, Skull and Bones should finally be here next month after over a decade of development, costing a reported total of around $200 million.
