Skull and Bones Release Date Confirmed With New Gameplay Deep Dive

Ubisoft has released a new Skull and Bones gameplay trailer, following their release date reveal on 2023’s The Game Awards.

Skull and Bones will be releasing on February 16, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Ubisoft Connect. The trailer Ubisoft shared at the event was really a quick summary of this newer 10 minute trailer, which demonstrates just how much game Ubisoft Singapore have put into it.

The game starts with you surviving a shipwreck, and resolving then and there to become a pirate. You immediately acquire an Asian female first mate, Azna, whose experience in seafaring will essentially make her your plunder Cortana.

The key experience metric is infamy. The more infamy you earn, the more the world opens up to you, with bigger, riskier contracts, and larger riches.

The first pirate den you enter is St. Anne, which comes with merchants like the blacksmith and the refiner. One of the merchants, the shipwright, will have you gather the materials needed so he can build your ships.

All ships are unique and have different customization options. This is the video gamey part as you can choose ship cannons that hit long or short range, or armor with elemental effects like fire and tearing resistance. You can even get furniture that regenerates stamina for your crew.

The key gameplay mechanic in Skull and Bones are the naval battles. This part of the game is probably going to feel familiar to people who have played World of Warships, but swapping out the pseudo-historically accurate military warships for these pirate vessels with strange, video gamey powers.

Naval battles have cooperative and competitive aspects to them. You can always try to call for other ships to help you out when any are in the vicinity of a losing battle. On the other hand, you can come across ships from rival factions. You can even find anyone going after you the moment you pick up a treasure map.

But there’s even more you can do in the game. You can always seek out shipwrecks to salvage, and find giant monsters to hunt. At a higher level, you will find yourself working for pirate kingpins, and on tier 6 of Buccanner Infamy, you can join the Helm and become one yourself, running your own illegal trades. No word for now if you’ll get to push opium, or kill people for pepper, but the potential abounds.

You can watch the full gameplay deep dive trailer below.