Skull and Bones Archives - Dot Esports

The seas have gotten bit more treacherous after the latest Skull & Bones update, but that’s welcome news for the captains looking to prove their mettle against their fellow pirates and swashbucklers.

Update 1.3 for year one season one of Skull & Bones will officially go live on March 19 after a brief maintenance period, adding the long-awaited and “much-requested” open world PvP experience. Players will be able to opt-in and raise the open world PvP flag outside of the special PvP event modes.

Have you ever downloaded a game, booted it up, and immediately thought: “I don’t really want to play this”? Well, it seems Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer is just like us, as he spent a staggeringly short amount of time playing Skull and Bones.

First noticed by lukliv672 on Reddit, Spencer spent less than two minutes on Skull and Bones before turning it off and seemingly never returning. This is in stark contrast compared to games like Diablo IV, which he spent 243 hours playing, or Elden Ring, which he grinded through for 117 hours.

The release of season one of Skull and Bones was rocky, to say the least. From missing quality-of-life features the community’s been asking for to seemingly lackluster content, including the new boss—Philippe La Peste.

Season one introduced the pirate lord La Peste and his Fleet of Pestilence as new enemies in the Indian Ocean. You can fight La Peste himself in a new world event called Tides of Terror, but players quickly agreed this is a waste of time. On Feb. 27, a Skull and Bones player shared the rewards they got from La Peste’s Locker (the chest you get from the boss), and the loot was not worth the effort.

Pirates have been sailing the treacherous seas of Skull and Bones since Feb. 13, and in a world as vast as this one, tons of potential new activities could add to the fun.

Skull and Bones players have been discussing the changes they most want in the future. Players can complete the main content in around 30 hours of playtime, and many are already looking ahead, as the roadmap reveals a lot more is coming this year. In a Reddit thread from Feb. 25, players discussed their most-wanted features for Ubisoft’s title.

After a long development, Skull and Bones has finally set sail on its maiden voyage, though not without running into rough waters. Initially announced in 2017, this much awaited Ubisoft project was pushed back six times before its eventual February 2024 release.

Ubisoft’s open-world pirate game takes place in the Golden Age of Piracy. As a custom character, you begin your journey as a shipwrecked survivor and slowly work up the pirate ladder while gaining infamy for your deeds.

Ubisoft chief executive Yves Guillemot has hit back at growing concerns around Skull and Bones‘ hefty price tag and its live-service model in the company’s latest conference call, promising the long-awaited pirate title will definitely “deliver in the long run.”

Guillemot fielded several questions on Skull and Bones and its early release during Ubisoft’s Feb. 8 call, and after hearing about players’ concerns, dubbed the game “quadruple-A.” Considering Ubisoft allegedly spent over $200 million on the project, it might as well be, and Guillemot confidently claimed that players will recognize “how vast and complete” Skull and Bones is. The executive finished by promising Skull and Bones would “deliver in the long run”—a claim seemingly backed up by the company already sharing its 2024 plans for the new sea-venturing title, which includes at least four major content updates.

A big ocean lies dead ahead you in Skull and Bones, and it’s clear from the start you’ll being as the lowest of low as a survivor of a disastrous wreck.

In a world full of cutthroats, you’ll need someone watching your back. The crafting NPCs are plenty helpful, but don’t quite provide you with a ton of direction. Every ship needs a captain, but every ship also needs a navigator, especially when that captain is still get their sea legs.

A new report alleges Ubisoft’s upcoming pirate game Skull and Bones cost roughly $200 million to produce, and the company doesn’t think it’ll make all that money back.

This is according to Insider Gamer, which claimed to have spoken with several Ubisoft employees to discuss the current state of the company and its plans. If this $200 million figure is accurate, it would make Skull and Bones the most expensive video game ever made, at least as far as the general public knows. Development budgets aren’t typically shared but, considering officially known figures, Cyberpunk 2077 is the most expensive game ever developed at the time of writing, as it cost around $174 million—not including marketing.

After years of doubt, Skull and Bones is finally arriving with Ubisoft planning to launch an open beta for the game ahead of its Feb. 16 release. The company also released information on the Skull and Bones endgame and a roadmap for year one content.

The seafaring pirate sim has seen numerous delays and rumors of development hell since 2017, and many were doubtful the game would ever be released. As time went by, and especially in these past couple of years, Skull and Bone seemed more and more like a real deal—and it is. Ubisoft’s upcoming title, based on the Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag naval combat, will be in open beta Feb. 8-11, with the full game coming five days later on Feb. 16, the company announced Jan. 25. On PC, players can embark on the oceans in the Ubisoft and Epic Games stores, and it will also be available for all new gen consoles. Cross-play and cross-progression will be enabled.

The Skull and Bones closed beta test is live until Dec. 18, and it lets players experience some of what the full game will offer. But many players with access to the closed beta aren’t enjoying what they’ve played so far, and some are calling the experience “boring.”

A recent Reddit post by user achilleasa is rapidly gaining traction as it highlights several issues with Skull and Bones that many players agree on. The Redditor begins the post by addressing the publisher directly, saying “Ubisoft, this ain’t it.” They explain how little fun they had with the game, particularly within its first hour, which they claim has “zero combat or excitement other than the combat tutorial at the start.”