As Kotaku reported back in 2021, Skull and Bones grew out of a concept for an Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag expansion. However, Ubisoft Singapore, the studio charged with leading the project, had never built a game of that scale before and struggled to hone in on a clear and feasible scope. Development issues were seemingly compounded by political in-fighting among team leads, conflicting directives from Ubisoft HQ, and a toxic studio leader. Some staff there also alledged instances of sexual harassment that management failed to address, and inequal pay between French expatriates and local developers.

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While Ubisoft eventually installed a new studio director and shuffled the old one back to its Paris office, and claimed a markedly improved workplace culture, Skull and Bones has continued to struggle. Some current and former Ubisoft developers speculated the game would have been canceled long ago if not for the hundreds of millions spent and a contract with the Singapore government to eventually ship the game in return for generous tax subsidies.

Ubisoft is also long overdue for a big release. With Skull and Bones dropping out of an already anemic year entirely, the publisher will be left with Just Dance 2022 and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope as its only major holiday releases. To help fill the gap, Ubisoft had hoped to release Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla expansion-turned-standalone-game, but that was also delayed. Currently, the only other Ubisoft game with a firm 2023 release date is Valiant Hearts 2.

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Ubisoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Update: 9/28/22 12:09 p.m. ET: Added Ubisoft’s official press release announcing the delay.

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