Skull And Bones is now in open beta, almost as if Ubisoft intend to ...

Continuing their great prank of pretending they plan to release Skull And Bones, Ubisoft today launched an open beta for their multiplayer open-world pirate boat game. The free beta will run until Sunday night, after which Ubisoft will presumably delay the game for another seventeen years while once again redesigning the whole thing. When you buy your great grandniece Skull And Bones for her 17th birthday, you'll be able to tell her you were there for the mythical open beta of '24.

[ESRB] Skull and Bones: Open Beta Trailer

The open beta pootles about a variety of waters, from the Red Isle starter zone to the East Indies, Coast Africa, and Open Seas. It lets you start on ranking up with the game's main campaign contracts, as well as take on side contracts and bounties and rumble with world events. It does have cross-platform multiplayer and progression, so it's nice that you'll be able to play with pals.

Neatly, your progression will carry over to the full game. Ubisoft are also offering treats like ship cosmetics and a lemur pet for hitting particular Infamy ranks during the open beta.

On PC, the open beta is available through Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store. Nope, no Steam. It's also on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Xeries XS. For us in the UK, the open beta will end after midnight on Monday, at 12:59am.

See Ubisoft's open beta site and this devblog for more info on it all.

Ubisoft are still saying that Skull And Bones will launch in full on the 16th of February, almost seven years after first announcing the game, and you have to admire their commitment to the bit. See you again in 2074. I can scarcely wait to see how pretty video game water will be by then.