Ubisoft to release Skull & Bones, Avatar game by April 2023

By Otto Kratky Published February 17, 2022

In a report of its third-quarter sales, Ubisoft revealed that it’s planning to release numerous highly awaited games over the course of its next fiscal year. Through the company’s fiscal year 2023, which begins in April 2022 and ends in April 2023, it plans to release Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and the long-beleaguered Skull & Bones.

“In line with Ubisoft’s commitment to significantly expand its offering, the next fiscal year will notably include the releases of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Skull & Bones as well as more exciting games,” reads the company’s latest sales report.

Ubisoft’s announcement that those games, specifically Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Skull & Bones, will release during the company’s next fiscal year is somewhat shocking. The former was announced in February 2017. Meanwhile, Skull & Bones has been in the midst of a troubled development cycle since being announced during Ubisoft’s 2017 E3 conference and intended for a 2018 release.

Skull & Bones has been delayed multiple times following that reveal and reportedly won’t be the same open-world piracy game it was first revealed as. Instead, the game is now supposedly a live service title, though other details on it are unknown. Specific release dates for any of Ubisoft’s games were not provided in its sales report or sales call.

While Ubisoft’s releases over the next year seem exciting, some of the company’s other games have been left out of the mix. Notably, Beyond Good & Evil 2, along with Ubisoft’s upcoming Star Wars games, only had two brief mentions throughout the company’s sales report that didn’t mention release windows.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

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Following a forgettable adaptation in 2009, the upcoming Avatar video game looks like a high-effort attempt to revitalize the series’ interactive potential. It’s a big-budget open-world adventure developed by The Division studio Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. It certainly looks the part, bringing the world of Pandora to life with lush environments and vibrant colors, but Avatar is more than its setting. Could the same open-world formula used in games like Far Cry really match the unique feel of James Cameron’s universe?

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Charles Martinet’s 6 most iconic video game performances

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Instead of criticizing this decision, which we don't know the actual reason for, I wanted to celebrate Martinet's career as a voice actor. Specifically, I'm highlighting six Charles Martinet performances that show just how great of a voice talent Martinet is.
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Gaming

Rayman returns in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope DLC later this month

Rayman, Rabbid Mario, and Rabbid Peach in Mario + Rabbid Sparks of Hope: Rayman in the Phantom Show

Ubisoft is finally bringing Rayman back as part of a new piece of DLC for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope later this month. Called Rayman in the Phantom Show, this DLC releases on August 30.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - DLC 3 Reveal Trailer
For a long time, Rayman was Ubisoft's premier mascot and starred in a series of platformers that people who grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s remember fondly. Unfortunately, Ubisoft's focus has primarily been on more mature series like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch_Dogs as well as the Rabbids (which spun off from a Rayman game) over the last decade, so Rayman took a back seat to those series following the launch of Rayman Legends. That's why Rayman in the Phantom Show is a big deal for fans of this dormant franchise; it's the most prominent role Rayman has had in a console game in almost a decade.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is a turn-based strategy game that launched on Nintendo Switch to critical acclaim last year. This latest (and final) piece of post-launch DLC for the game follows Rayman, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Mario as they take on the Phantom -- a boss from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle -- in an otherworldly TV studio called the Space Opera Network. David Gasman, who voiced the titular character in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, reprises his role here.

It's not a full-on platformer, but the reveal trailer for the DLC does show how players can use Rayman's detachable limbs and helicopter ability to explore the Space Opera network. At least it's something that looks pretty entertaining for fans of classic Rayman, who Ubisoft hasn't appealed to in quite a long time. Hopefully, it's as good as Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle's excellent Donkey Kong DLC.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is available now exclusively for Nintendo Switch. Rayman in the Phantom Show comes out on August 30, and it can be purchased individually or as part of Spark of Hope's season pass.