When was Skull and Bones first announced?

It feels like Skull and Bones has been in development forever, with multiple delays only serving to make this period seem longer, making us all forget when it was first announced.

Skull and Bones has been delayed so often that it stopped being a meme years ago. The ambitious pirate project has had Ubisoft’s full backing, and the company has likely invested more than it hoped, with the title’s budget rumored to be greater than ever expected. As a result, Skull and Bones has been completely reinvented and tweaked to death.

It doesn’t even seem like keelhauling will do any good because Skull and Bones is sailing relentlessly toward its, hopefully, final release date. But how did we get here? When did the wind blow us off course?

What year was Skull and Bones first announced?

Incredibly, Skull and Bones was first announced in 2017 at Ubisoft’s E3 Press Conference.

Yes, that’s how long it’s been. Skull and Bones was a huge deal back when E3 was the hottest gaming ticket of the year—before it died a dishonorable pirate’s death and E3 was canceled for good.

We had great cause for excitement thanks to the original debut trailer offering an intense cinematic look at promising naval combat, akin to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, treasure, pillaging, fighting, and perhaps horrors lurking beneath the waters.

But, after initially being penciled in for a 2018 release, Skull and Bones’ vision and structure have nearly sent the title overboard on many occasions. It was pushed back to 2019, then 2020, eventually to 2021 to 2022, a big rethink forced a new delay to 2022-2023, and now we are locked in for Feb. 16, 2024.

The consensus seems to be that players have soured toward Skull and Bones now, with testers quitting the closed beta due to “boredom.” Criticism has been directed at the gameplay, with the omission of hand-to-combat combat a baffling one.

Despite the comparisons, Skull and Bones is different from Sea of Thieves and will offer its own unique pirate experience.