Ubisoft's live sea-rvice game Skull & Bones delayed again

What is a skull if not a bone? A bone structure? Either these pirates are pedants or they should have named their game Bones & Bones.

Perhaps it's questions like these that have led Skull & Bones, Ubisoft's seafaring adventure, to be delayed yet again. This time it's been pushed until sometime after March 2022.

Ubisoft confirmed the delay in their full-year earnings report for 2020. Their confirmed slate of releases for 2021 includes Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Rider Republic, Roller Champions, and the recently announced free-to-play The Division Heartland. Skull & Bones, meanwhile, "will now be released in 2022-23."

Here's what the game looked like when we last saw it in 2018:

During the company's earnings call, VGC report that chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet commented on the delay. “We strongly believe in the team’s creative vision and they have been given an increasingly ambitious mandate for the game," he said. "Production led by [Ubisoft] Singapore has been advancing well over the past 12 months and the promise is better than ever. The additional time will allow the team to fully deliver on its vision."

I don't really know what that vision is, anymore. Skull & Bones was announced back in 2017 as an online game that felt like a cross between Assassin's Creed Black Flag and The Division, but it has reportedly been substantially retooled since then to turn it into more of a live service game. Ubisoft also removed the game's managing director last year following allegations of sexual harassment.

You can't read too much into videogames being delayed, because they're delayed regularly and for many different reasons. I do look forward to seeing more of Skull & Bones when it's ready, though.