Ubisoft's live-service pirate sim Skull and Bones pulls into port on Steam this August
Unless it gets delayed again. For old times' sake.
Skull and Bones! Ubisoft's pirate sim wasn't great when I tried it: A hodge-podge of not particularly thrilling systems that were anyway obscured by all sorts of live-service stuff. Our Shaun Prescott scored it 68% in his Skull and Bones review, while Tyler Wilde found that it just made him really want to see what was going on in Sea of Thieves. Not glowing recommendations, in general.
And yet, to its credit, Ubisoft keeps trying. In the wake of a free week and the game's second season, the company has announced that Skull and Bones will finally be making the long voyage over to Steam, where it'll launch on August 22. The Steam page is live now, in case you'd like to go and marvel at it.
Skull and Bones is setting sail on Steam on August 22! Get ready to navigate the ruthless high seas, engage in brutal naval battles, and build your own empire. Wishlist Now! ????☠️ https://t.co/9s2Wxn8WsWSkull and Bones also available on Ubisoft Connect: https://t.co/9SQv5dLFd1 pic.twitter.com/5yV3gYAUSuJuly 22, 2024
It probably won't be enough to turn me into a die-hard Skull and Bones stan, but releasing on a platform I don't quietly resent having to launch every time I want to play a game on it surely won't hurt the game. Then again, you'll likely just be launching Ubisoft Connect from Steam.
If you're one of the scurvy dogs who was averaging over four hours of daily playtime in the game back in February, you can rest assured all your hard-won progress will carry over. In a follow-up tweet, Ubisoft told an interested punter that "Skull and Bones supports cross progress, and so your progress is saved on your Ubisoft Account." In short: So long as your Steam account is linked to the same Ubisoft account you've been playing on up to now, you can pick up right where you left off. After you buy the game again, anyway.
To be honest, I'm mostly keen to see what the user reviews look like. That might sound like I'm making fun, but the fact is that the game has been quietly chugging along since it came out five months ago. What are things like in there? In that forbidden kingdom of a live-service game that has surely shaken off all but its most dedicated players by now? Perhaps updates have made the game genuinely good, and it'll arrive on Steam to a glowing user rating.
Or perhaps not, and I'll be able to see just what's still irking people about the game here in its second season. Either one sounds interesting to me.