Ubisoft delay Skull and Bones yet again, together with a mystery "large game"
rockpapershotgun.comUbisoft's multiplayer Jolly Rog 'em up Skull and Bones is caught on the reefs once again. Recently tipped to appear in early fiscal year 2023-2024, it's now due to make landfall in the publisher's FYQ4 - sometime between January and March 2024. What's the Golden Age of Piracy equivalent for "vapourware"? I'm picturing a spectral vessel like the Flying Dutchman, crewed by glum-faced producers and with a big grimacing statue of company CEO Yves Guillemot affixed to the prow.
The troubled naval combat sim isn't the only Ubisoft project experiencing misadventures. As revealed in their latest earnings report, the publisher have also pushed back a mysterious "large game", originally due to launch before the end of their current fiscal year, to the next fiscal year, which means at some point after 31st March 2024. Speculation runs rife that the anonymous blockbuster is Ubisoft Massive's Star Wars: Outlaws.
The latter rumour comes from Ethan Gach over at Kotaku, drawing on reporting earlier in the year. Whatever the other "large game" is, Ubisoft are framing this second delay as a show of strength, reflecting financial "overperformance in Q2 and the current positive momentum of Ubisoft's brands", according to a statement. As such, Ubisoft feel they can pull off their "announced guidance of strong top line growth and non-[International Financial Reporting Standards] operating income of approximately €400 million, without releasing the other large game [they] had initially planned to launch during the last quarter of the current fiscal year." Launching this unspecified game in financial year 2024-2025 will allow Ubisoft "to maximize its value creation".
In other words, they say they're making fat stacks right now and are
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