You Can Now Play 8 Hours of Skull and Bones for Free

A free trial for Skull and Bones is live on PC, PS5, and Xbox.

By Marc Deschamps

After years of delays, Skull and Bones is finally available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. It's been a long wait, and some players can hardly be blamed for wanting to try it before they buy. Thankfully, Ubisoft has an option to do just that on each of the game's platforms. The trial lasts up to 8 hours, and allows players to "enjoy the full content of Skull and Bones with a progress limitation." The best part is, progress can be transferred to the game's full release, so those that decide to purchase Skull and Bones won't have to start all over again. 

A Trailer for the trial can be found in the Tweet embedded below. Readers can sign up for the trial right here. 

Live-Service With a Cost

That 8 hour trial should be quite helpful for players questioning whether Skull and Bones is worth its $70 asking price. That's pretty much the standard for most big games these days, but that figure has gotten a bit of negative attention over the last few weeks. Skull and Bones will have live-service elements, which led one investor to ask Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot why it's not launching as a free-to-play game instead. During a conference call, Guillemot defended the price, and claimed that players will find that Skull and Bones is worth paying for. 

"You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game," said Guillemot. "It's a very big game, and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. It's a really full, triple… quadruple-A game, that will deliver in the long run."

Trouble on the High Seas

Announced in 2017, Skull and Bones has had a troubled history. Development apparently started on the game more than a decade ago, following the release of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. During that time, the game ran into a number of problems, with development apparently being rebooted in 2020. With so many delays and changes since that initial announcement, it's easy to imagine some players being cautious before spending their hard-earned money. Of course, those that don't want to spend the full $70 can also play Skull and Bones through the Ubisoft+ subscription service, where the game was made available on day one. 

At this time, critical reception has been a bit mixed. The game's current score on Metacritic is a 64, which isn't terrible, but a lot of outlets have reviews in progress, as they're waiting to spend more time with Skull and Bones before offering a final verdict. After all this time, hopefully Skull and Bones will prove enjoyable for players, and will see enough long-term support to keep players invested. 

Have you checked out Skull and Bones yet? Do you plan on signing up for the trial? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

[H/T: Video Games Chronicle]

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