Skull And Bones ships in November, but not for PS4 and Xbox One

Skull and Bones cover art pirate ship steering wheel — Great, but where is Beyond Good & Evil 2? (photo: Ubisoft)

UbisoftThe pirate game, Skull And Bones, will be ready to ship in just four months, and we’ve got official gameplay footage to boot.

It’s been years since Ubisoft showed off its multiplayer pirate game Skull And Bones, no doubt because of its reportedly troubled development cycle†

A few leaks suggested that the game is finally in a state where it could be released soon, and Ubisoft itself has now confirmed that it will launch in November with a new gameplay trailer.

As a general overview for Skull And Bones, we now have a better idea of what exactly you’ll be doing in the game, and it looks like Ubisoft has decided it’s a pirate-themed live service title.

You start out as a nameless pirate captain with only a small boat to your name. Gaining infamy by completing contracts and other activities will increase your reputation, unlock more missions, and eventually upgrade to a bigger ship.

There seem to be plenty of management systems in play as not only are you constantly looking for resources to further upgrade your ship, weapons, and armor, but you also need to keep your crew happy. If you don’t feed them, they will eventually mutiny and kick you off your ship.

When it comes to combat, naval combat seems to be the sole focus of the game. The only times you seem to leave your ship is when you arrive at outposts (safe zones where you can interact with non-player characters, find contracts, and the like) or when exploring islands on foot.

The trailer shows no instances of melee combat or gunfights, with instances where you board another ship to loot them in a cutscene.

You can hunt animals like crocodiles for their skin and meat, and other materials like wood can be harvested without even getting off your boat.

Both the player character and the ships are fully customizable, the latter being particularly extensive. There are different ship types with their own strengths and weaknesses, and they can be decked out with a multitude of cosmetics, armor and unique weapons to fend off other pirates and pirate hunters.

In a separate video, senior game director Ryan Barnard adds that the point is not for players to build into one type of ship, but instead to collect a series of different ships so that they always have the right tools for each type of ship. mission.

There doesn’t seem to be a standard game over, as a sunken ship will only cause you to respawn at the nearest outpost. You will lose some of your charge, however, but that can be recovered by going to where you lost it, provided you get there before another player does.

While Skull And Bones can be played in single player (and you can opt out of the PvP servers if you don’t want to worry about fighting other players), Ubisoft clearly expects people to work together and explore the world together, or participate in in PvP battles.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that while it was announced for last-gen consoles, Skull And Bones is now skipping the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in favor of their more powerful successors.

As a reminder, Ubisoft has another Ubisoft Forward scheduled for September, but it hasn’t said which games will be featured.

Skull And Bones is out November 9 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC, Stadia, and Amazon Luna.