Through the Spyglass: Year 2 in Review

Hi Captains,

With Year 3 on the horizon, we wanted to take a moment to look back at the journey so far: what we did in Year 2, what we learned along the way, and where our focus is as we continue shaping the future of Skull and Bones.

If you haven’t already, we invite you to catch up with our latest The Deck livestream recording on the Ubisoft Twitch channel where we reflect on Year 2 and set expectation for what lies ahead.

First and foremost, we want to thank you, our community, for the continued unwavering support and passion you've shown for Skull and Bones. Many of the decisions we make are guided by your feedback, and it's together with the community that the game continues to evolve.

We hope this letter gives you a glimpse into our thinking over the past year and the direction we’re taking for what comes next.

YEAR 2 RETROSPECTIVE

Year 2 was designed as an ambitious step forward for Skull and Bones. Coming out of Year 1, we were proud of our ability to deliver new content and features with every season, and our goal was to build on that momentum.

Guided by your feedback, we set two clear priorities: bringing more variety to the game, while putting a stronger focus on quality.

With these pillars in mind, our roadmap included several major additions and systems planned throughout the year. At the same time, we refined ways how we approach releasing new content by streamlining our feedback loop and giving ourselves more time to react to insights from our Insider Program.

Our goal was to ensure that new features met players’ expectations for quality, even when that meant taking more time to fine-tune them or delaying releases to get them right.

Throughout the year, these intentions took shape across the different seasons of Skull and Bones. Many of these additions were shaped directly through feedback from our Insider Program and the wider community.

• Y2S1 introduced World Tiers, Weapon Ascension, and the Schooner, alongside major UI and map improvements.

• Y2S2 introduced our first large ship the Frigate along with Weapon Loadouts and the Megafort. During this season, we also made the decision to give the Faction War more time to reach the quality we were aiming for.

• Y2S3 brought the Sloop of War, Faction War, and Armor Ascension, further expanding large-scale conflict and progression systems.

• Y2S4 introduced the Corvette and the long-awaited Kraken, bringing one of the toughest battles in the Indian Ocean. Here we saw players experimenting with builds, helping each other and finding ways to tackle the most difficult.

Alongside these major additions, we continued introducing quality-of-life improvements throughout the year as part of our stronger focus on improving the overall quality of the game.

And we've clearly seen both stronger positive reception from our players on our community channels, but also stronger player engagement in game as well, with a significantly higher number of active users compared to Year 1.

In some cases, features required more time than initially anticipated, while in others we made the decision to refocus our efforts on strengthening the core gameplay experience of Skull and Bones.

This meant making some difficult but necessary decisions, including stopping development on Land Combat. As of today, Land Gameplay is no longer being worked on, or on our roadmap for the future.

We felt we were still far from meeting players expectations, and continuing to work on it would have required a significant investment in terms of time and resources and put other key features at risk.

In other words, we didn't want to simply add land gameplay as a side activity players would do once or twice and then never again - and to achieve that would have meant sacrificing other aspects of the game we believe are more important.

We felt it was necessary for us to stay focused and ensure every new content or feature we bring to the game adds real value and connects really well with Skull and Bones core gameplay which has always been naval combat.

These decisions, while difficult to make and disappointing for many, were necessary for us to stay focused on what lies at the heart of our core gameplay loop: naval combat.

YEAR 2 CONCLUSIONS

While we weren’t able to deliver every feature originally planned for the Year 2 roadmap, the past year reinforced an important lesson for us: Skull and Bones is at its best when we focus on its core strength: naval combat. Rather than trying to do everything at once, our priority moving forward is to build on that foundation and take the time needed to deliver experiences that meet the level of quality players expect.

Community feedback continues to play a central role in shaping our roadmap and priorities. Throughout Year 2, early insights from our Insider Program helped us make meaningful progress in delivering core seasonal content that better aligns with player expectations.

At the same time, we know there is still work ahead. Improving quality, refining the balance between challenge and rewards, and bringing greater variety to the core gameplay loop remain key areas of focus for us.

As we look toward Year 3 and beyond, we expect community feedback to continue playing an even greater role in shaping the future of Skull and Bones.
Year 2 helped clarify what the game is and what it can become, and we’re excited to keep building that future together with you.

YEAR 3 AND BEYOND

Our Focus For Year 3

As we look ahead, our focus for Year 3 is clear: strengthening the core gameplay loop, re-playability & Quality.

Naval combat remains at the heart of the experience, and our goal is to double down on what keeps players returning to the seas each season: unlocking new ships, new equipment, experimenting with new loadouts, and taking on the most challenging encounters the game has to offer.

Insider Program

The Insider Program continues to be a crucial part of Skull and Bones development since before launch. The early feedback we receive through the program continues to play a key role in helping us refine new features and seasonal content before it reaches the live game.

Looking ahead, we are working on evolving how the Insider Program operates, including how players can join, participate, and how we share insights from these sessions with the wider community. More details on these updates will be shared soon.

Year 3 Reveal
We know many of you are eager to learn what’s coming next for Skull and Bones and we will be sharing more details soon.

In the meantime, mark your calendars and join us on May 6, 2026, on https://www.twitch.tv/ubisoft, where we’ll reveal what lies ahead in Skull and Bones. Keep an eye on our social channels for more details as we get closer to the date.

BEYOND YEAR 3

We also know that many of you are curious about the future of Skull and Bones beyond Year 3.

Your feedback and requests continue to play an important role in shaping our roadmap, and we remain committed to growing the game together with our community. Skull and Bones still has plenty of room to evolve in scale, in systems, and in the experiences, and we are committed to see it through, every step of the way and for many, many years to come.

We’re excited to continue this journey with you, our community.

A SHOUTOUT TO OUR COMMUNITY

As we wrap up our yearly review, we want to take a moment to highlight the amazing content you’ve been creating and sharing. We love seeing your adventures across the Indian Ocean, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll bring as we sail into Year 3 of Skull and Bones.

Heinz – SnB Tools

Continuing to be a staple of the community, Skull and Bones Tools is the go-to place for everything you could need on the Skull and Bones. Throughout the year SnB Tools has seen the major addition with the dedicated Faction War page which follows the progress of the ongoing conflict.

Keepers

Next, we want to shine a spotlight on our Keepers of the Code. As many of you know, these are core members of our community who continually go above and beyond. You’ll definitely recognise a few familiar names! You may recall from our Y2S3 Letter from the Producer, many of them joined us in Singapore for a workshop in November 2025 and continue to help shape the direction of the game behind the scenes.

• Motherflame – A constant source of joy and insight, bringing memes, thoughtful feedback, drawings, and some truly adorable Kraken suggestions.
• Alpha – Bursting with energy and ideas, Alpha consistently delivers detailed feedback while always considering how features and changes will land with the wider community.
• Gilbert-Galad – A key voice from the Trade Discord, always thinking beyond the immediate moment and helping others see the bigger picture.
• T – One of our ever reliable Discord moderators, who has recently been dubbed as the local tea expert in Singapore during the workshop.
• Lilywhite – Current Owner of the Discord, long term moderator of Reddit – fastest to pin a topic on Reddit. They currently hold a record of the number of Kraken takedown.
• Johnny – A regular in the Trade Discord and our most passionate PvP defender, never shy about standing up for competitive gameplay and healthy debate.
• Kaeryo – The driving force behind our stream recaps. We can’t wait to welcome you back and see those summaries return following your military service.
• Bellegar – Veteran Insider, now fully fledged Keeper, one of the early players of the game, whose feedback has been helping shape the game for a long time.

Video/Meme Credit: MotherFlame

Thank you to all the Keepers of the Code for your feedback, active involvement and passion. From participating in Insider Programs to taking part in workshops and feedback sessions, your continued support is greatly appreciated.

Content Creators

We also want to give a shoutout to the Content Creators who had their emblems introduced into the Indian Ocean this year.
This year, we introduced exclusive emblems for D3ATHWISH, ChargingCharlie, Spammals, Lilywhite, and RubyNXT. If you missed any of them, you can check out their Community Spotlights here:

• D3athwish
• ChargingCharlie
• Spammals
• Lilywhite
• RubyNXT

We’re excited to announce the next creators getting in-game emblems! Coming in Year 3 Season 1: CaptainGTI and Heinz. Stay tuned to our social channels for updates on when and how you’ll be able to earn them.

If you missed the chance to earn the previous drops, we’ll be re-running a selection of emblems at the end of April, keep an eye out for more details.

Guides and UGC

We also want to take a second to acknowledge the passionate players who share their love of Skull and Bones through their screenshots, the guides they write, the help they provide to the rest of the Community.

Skull And Bones Guides and Tools | Powered by Community Members

In case you missed it following the launch of Year 2 Season 4 we shared a comprehensive list of various guides and tools community members have shared.

Toran/ No-Note-5439

We want to give a shoutout to one community member in particular Toran/ No-Note-5439. Throughout Year 2 they’ve shared various guides to help fellow community members complete different world events and activities.
With the launch of the Kraken in Y2S4, they shared a detailed battle guide covering all the information you need when it comes to this ferocious beast.

Screenshots

We couldn’t resist sharing a few of our favourite screenshots from this year, celebrating just a small selection of the outstanding captures from our talented community.

PlatinumGodGames

We want to include a shoutout to PlatinumGodGames. Through his dedicated weekly Reddit posts highlighting what’s available in Blackwood’s store, he’s created a resource that players have come to rely on week after week.

Insiders

Thank you to all the Insiders, who played the game and shared their feedback during this year’s Insider Program phases.

Last but definitely not least, thank you to all of you who have been sailing the Indian Ocean of Skull and Bones in the last year. See you in Year 3!