Category: Gaming

The Nintendo Switch is such a delightful console due in part to its portability, letting you play the best Switch games from anywhere. But that leads to one major problem: battery life. A Switch battery case, like our top pick, NEWDERY External Battery Station, remedies the issue, ensuring you’re never without juice and maybe adding an extra bit of protection in the process, similar to the best Switch cases.

TL;DR — These are the Best Nintendo Switch Battery Cases:

A battery case is one of the best Nintendo Switch accessories you can grab for your handheld console, substantially extending your playtime away from power outlets. Some even strap or slot themselves directly onto the device, giving you a power solution without adding considerable bulk, while others stick with the traditional vibes of the best power banks.

So, to help in your search, we’ve selected a range of batteries for your console, and you may even score a great Nintendo Switch deal in the process. Plus, chances are good some of our picks might work with the Nintendo Switch 2, rumored to be released later this year.

1. NEWDERY External Battery Station

Best Nintendo Switch Battery Case

The NEWDERY External Battery Station adds a beefy, 10,000mAh battery to your Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch OLED. That’s no small backup, and it can stretch the battery life of your console considerably—an extra eight hours or 1.6 full charges. You’re not limited to just juicing up your Switch, as it also works as a portable charger to top up your phone or tablet.

This battery case is rocking some handy extras, like a kickstand in the back to use your Switch in tabletop mode, and a slot behind that kickstand is ready to stow two game cartridges. It also offers an 18W PD, ensuring your Switch’s fully drained battery is back to full in under 2 hours. There’s even a smart chipset to help protect your device against overvoltage and short-circuiting, while cutouts and air vents on the case prevent overheating.

2. NEWDERY Battery Charger Case for Nintendo Switch Lite

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Battery Case

NEWDERY Battery Charger Case

Grab this Switch Lite Battery case and slot the console directly into it for up to 10 hours of extended playtime and additional USB-A to charge another device.

See on Amazon

The Nintendo Switch Lite is more compact and lacks detachable joy-cons like the other Switch models, which means you’ll want to grab the best Switch Lite accessories to fit its smaller dimensions. So, if you’re looking for a battery case to keep your Switch Lite topped up for long commutes or travel days, the NEWDERY Battery Charger Case for Nintendo Switch Lite is the perfect partner. In fact, it’s from the same company as our top pick.

This option integrates a battery and USB-C into a lightweight, ergonomic case for your Switch Lite. You’ll enjoy an additional 10 hours of playtime on your console thanks to the 10,400mAh battery that can handle speeds up to 18W. There’s even an additional USB-A output to charge another device, while it’s possible to charge both the Switch Lite and the battery case simultaneously. Battery levels can be monitored using LED indicators and multiple vents help prevent overheating. Adding the NEWDERY Battery Charger Case’s greatness is a kickstand and storage for one game card.

3. Nyko Power Pak

Best Slim Nintendo Switch Battery Case

Nyko Power Pak

Keep your Switch topped up with this slim, lightweight battery case offering 5,000mAh of juice without covering up the Joy-Cons or blocking any ports and vents.

See on Amazon

Love everything about playing your Nintendo Switch on the go but just wish it could last a little bit longer? Then you’ll want the Nyko Power Pak. This battery case will let you keep playing with your Switch virtually unaltered. It doesn’t cover up the Joy-con, doesn’t block any ports or vents, and it only adds a half-pound onto the device. It does cover the Switch’s built-in kickstand, but it makes up for that with a kickstand of its own.

Once you have the Nyko Power Pak strapped onto your Switch, you’ll get an extra 5,000mAh of battery capacity for all your mobile gaming needs. Nyko suggests that this can almost double the battery life of your Switch, letting you really grind out the levels when you’re nowhere near a power outlet. When you need to charge up the Nyko Power Pack, you can do so with the same USB-C cable you’d use to charge your Switch outside of the dock. That all makes for a pretty strong product, especially given it costs just about $20.

4. Bionik Power Commuter

Best Nintendo Switch Carrying Case With a Battery

Bionik Power Commuter

A roomy Switch carrying case with multiple pouches and built-in organizers that even includes a handy 10,000mAh battery bank.

See on Walmart

You can get one of the best Nintendo Switch cases and an on-the-go battery pack for your Nintendo Switch all in one with the Bionik Power Commuter. This carrying case is designed to fit your Switch and a handy assortment of extras safely inside while providing a 10,000mAh battery pack to charge up your console (or your phone for that matter) between play sessions when you’re on the move and can’t get to a wall outlet.

The case has a main pouch for the Switch to slot into, and there’s a second compartment for accessories. You can store a bunch of game cartridges in a built-in organizer, and there’s a pocket to hold extra Joy-Con. The case itself is padded and uses water-resistant YKK zippers, helping keep all your gear safe. There’s a simple carrying handle on the case, but it can also attach to the straps of a backpack or sling, or you can attach the included shoulder strap for hands-free transport.

5. Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux

Best Nintendo Switch Power Bank

Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux

Universal power bank offering a USB-A and USB-C port along with 10,000mAh of juice capable of 25W charging speeds.

See on Amazon

Power banks made specifically for the Nintendo Switch can be handy for their ability to attach and almost integrate with the portable console, but they may lack some of the flexibility and capacity (and often the price) of more universal power banks. Anker’s PowerCore 10000 PD Redux is an example of how much you can get for a good price.

This power bank offers 10,000mAh of juice, and it can pump that out at up to 25W, letting you keep charging your Nintendo Switch even as you play. The battery pack has both a USB-A port and a USB-C port, so you can charge your Nintendo Switch and a secondary device (maybe your Pro Controller) at the same time. That USB-C port also handles recharging the power bank, which you can do with the very charger that your Nintendo Switch came with. Anker even includes the USB-C cable needed to make the most out of this power bank with your Nintendo Switch.

6. Emperor of Gadgets Portable Power Bank

Best Attachable Battery

Emperor of Gadgets Portable Power Bank

Top off your Switch with a 10,000mAh portable battery that straps onto it while offering a built-in USB-C and additional ports to charge other devices.

See on Amazon

The Emperor of Gadgets Portable Power Bank is a simple yet effective solution to extend your Nintendo Switch’s battery life. This option is rather unique, as it actually straps onto the backside of your Switch, adding a slight amount of bulk and weight to the device. But you’ll still have an enjoyable playing experience while your portable console juices up.

The 10,000mAh should significantly extend your gaming time, and it can pump out 15W of power, keeping your Switch topped up even when it’s running demanding games. A built-in USB-C cable makes it easy to plug into your Switch without any cable management or needing to remember a cable in the first place. There also are USB-A and USB-C ports on the power bank, so you can charge other devices without unplugging the Switch. Plus, short circuit and overvoltage protection ensure everything is done safely.

7. Nyko Boost Pak

Best Compact Nintendo Switch Battery Pack

Nyko Boost Pak

Add only 55g of extra weight to your Switch with the ultra-slim Nyko Boost Pak, which attaches directly to your console’s USB-C and delivers 2,500mAh of power.

See on Amazon

If you like the idea of having a little extra battery pack that can attach to your Nintendo Switch but don’t see yourself needing something that adds a ton of extra power at the cost of taking up space, then the Nyko Boost Pak will be right up your alley. This slim unit latches onto the bottom of the Nintendo Switch, connecting right into the USB-C port and adding virtually no thickness (though it will make your Switch a bit taller). It’s actually slim enough that you can keep it attached even when docking the Switch. And, when you’re on the go, it only weighs 55 grams, so you’ll hardly notice it.

The Nyko Boost Pak adds on a modest but useful 2,500mAh of battery power. And, rather than just always running when it’s attached, the Boost Pak has a power switch, so you can decide when it kicks into gear. Perhaps best of all, this is one of the cheapest Nintendo Switch accessories you’ll find. The unit costs less than $10.

What to Look For in a Switch Battery Case

There are a couple of things to keep in mind before pulling the trigger on a battery case for your Switch. First, the original Switch’s internal battery is 4,310mAh and typically lasts about three hours when undocked (depending on the game). The new Switch lasts a bit longer between four to five hours in our experience, though Nintendo has yet to reveal the exact capacity of the larger battery.

Most of the packs I found are around 10,000mAh, so nearly all of them promise to double the life of your Switch, but that won’t always be the case.

There are a lot of factors that go into the efficiency of an external battery pack, so don’t be disappointed if that 10,000mAh battery doesn’t triple your Switch’s battery life. With that said, all of them will still provide quite a boost.

Also see: best power banks and portable chargers

Danielle Abraham is a freelance writer and unpaid music historian.

Apex Legends is celebrating its 5th year anniversary and season 20 is bringing about a complete overhaul to the classic battle royale mode. Not only is Apex Legends getting a new performance 120fps mode for consoles, new shield system, and a new leveling system in matches, and more. Here’s what you need to know about Apex Legends Breakout.

New Leveling System

When playing battle royale in Ranked or Casual in Apex Legends, you will now be using a Leveling System to unlock better shields and modified abilities. When entering a game, you’ll enter at Level 1 with a basic Shield.

When you do Class actions, do damage, or get kills you’ll get XP that will increase your Level. Additionally, you can find Evo Harvesters around the world that will grant your team 400 XP. Think of this system like the FPS version of League of Legends match leveling.

When your teammate performs a Class Action, you’ll also get some points to your level. Class actions include Support Legends opening the extra Support Bins, or Controller Legends scanning Ring Consoles.

There are four total Levels and each one comes with a Shield upgrade and two modified abilities. At Level 2 you get a choice between two modified abilities and at Level 3 you get your final choice between two modified abilities. These additions are meant to encourage different playstyles within the battle royale.

When you earn a level up, the prompt will come up on your screen and you can select your new modified ability immediately or open your inventory screen and select from there later.

Shields Overhaul

Evo Shields were the previous iteration where you could earn new Shield levels by doing specific amounts of damage. The new armor will only upgrade now through the new XP Level system in each match.

When you earn a new Level, your shield will upgrade and you’ll earn a new pip (another bar). After you hit a new level, your shield will also automatically regenerate slowly but will pause if you take damage.

Shields are no longer lootable in the world. The new name for the shields are Shield Cores. When you kill an enemy, you can loot their Shield Core, so the previous Shield Swapping is still something you can do. However, if the enemy has an Shield Core that’s a higher level than your current shield, you’ll only get an extra pip as a temporary overshield.

For example, if you’re only Level 2 and pick up a Level 3 Shield Core, you’ll get the full three pips but the fourth pip will only be temporary. There are items throughout the maps that will grant instant level ups but they’re a bit rare so the best way to go about increasing your shield permanently is by leveling.

Battle Royale Changes

Along with the new leveling and shield system, a few mechanics have been adjusted to the battle royale. The Crafters will no longer require any materials to craft but will also no longer hold a weekly and daily rotation of weapons or attachments.

Instead, the Crafter will only be able to produce Medkits, ammo, Shield Batteries, and Respawn Banners if your party has a Support Legend. You can only use a Crafter once but the time to craft is almost immediate.

If you spend too much time outside of the ring in Season 20, you’ll be prompted to get back into the safe zone with a timer that counts down overhead. So don’t think you can get away with looting or healing in the zone to cheese your matches.

Ranked Changes

For more competitive players curious about Ranked changes, Everyone’s Ranks will be completely reset. Everyone will be starting with 1 RP and will have to climb through the ranks to see how far they can go. Ranked midseason splits are returning along with the return of Ranked Points instead of Ladder Points.

The required level to enter Ranked is now 20 instead of 50. There will also be a new transparent scoring system that will give players actionable feedback. You’ll be able to see how you fared in combat, match placement, and other bonuses like skilled play after each match.

In matches, you’ll be able to see your enemy’s current rank so that intel is now available to all players. Each Rank will have an increased entry cost and the Promotional Trials implemented last season (the trials you needed to complete to rank up into a new tier) are gone this season. However, also returning is the midseason rank demotion where you’ll be dropped up to six tiers to restart the climb.

Your highest rank out of both splits will be counted towards the animated badge which is your season 20 reward.

Stella is a Video Producer, Host, and Editor at IGN. Her gameplay focus is on competitive FPS games and she’s previously reviewed Apex Legends, Hyper Scape, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, and Battlefield 2042. She regularly hosts and shoutcasts competitive Apex Legends and Halo Infinite tournaments when she isn’t streaming on her Twitch channel after work outs. You can follow her on Twitter @ParallaxStella.

This article contains spoilers for Death Stranding.

Hideo Kojima has confirmed that Mads Mikkelsen will not return to portray the mysterious soldier Clifford Unger in Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, but reassured fans that the character will remain “in the story of Death Stranding, and in your memories forever”.

“We have received many enthusiastic messages from you saying, ‘I want to see Cliff in DS2 too!’,” wrote Kojima in a post on X/Twitter. “However, Mads is not appearing in Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.”

Unger served as a pivotal figure in the cerebral plot of 2018’s Death Stranding, which saw players go head-to-head against Mikkelsen’s phantasmal character in a series of historically themed showdowns. These conflict-laden encounters were juxtaposed throughout Death Stranding’s story with a series of emotionally charged flashbacks, in which the player is granted brief windows into Ungor’s tragic past, and his mysterious connections to the game’s protagonist, Sam Porter Bridges, and the Bridge Baby he carried with him.

“If you have PLAYED DS1 to the end, you will understand,” wrote Kojima in a follow-up post. “Cliff is a character who played a very important and special role in Death Stranding. Mads understood this and performed it beautifully. Mads’ Cliff will remain in the story of Death Stranding and in your memories forever. It is because we care about the character of Cliff that he will not appear in DS2.”

While some fans were left disappointed by the confirmation that Ungor would not appear in the upcoming sequel, others praised the decision, while agreeing that 2018’s Death Stranding gave a satisfying conclusion to Unger’s tragic story.

“If only people would understand this, the number of times an iconic character returns only because people loved it and therefore devalues his arch destroying the impact he made is too damn high,” wrote one X user in response to Kojima’s post. “Often a dead character makes more impact than a returning one.”

Clifford Ungor may be out, but multiple characters from the original are set to make an appearance in Death Stranding 2. We know from the trailers released to date that Norman Reedus will reprise his role as protagonist Sam Porter Bridges, while Troy Baker will once again take on the role of Death Stranding antagonist Higgs Monaghan, who has somehow made his way back to the world of the living.

Lea Seydoux will meanwhile will reprise her role as Fragile, who will appear alongside a cast of new characters portrayed by Elle Fanning, and a living doll in the likeness of fim director Fatih Akin, and voice acted by actor Jonathan Roumie, which will seemingly take on BB’s role and accompany Sam through the events of the sequel.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

The Xbox version of Final Fantasy 14 requires a Game Pass subscription on top of the massively multiplayer role-playing game’s own monthly cost.

Tucked into a blog post revealing the Xbox version’s open beta begins on February 21 at 12 midnight Pacific / 3am Eastern / 8am UK, Square Enix revealed that, unlike PlayStation, Xbox players will have to pay for two subscriptions to play Final Fantasy 14.

“The Free Trial version, including the open beta test, will not require an Xbox Game Pass (Core or Ultimate) plan to play,” Square Enix said. “However, the full Xbox Series X and S version will require an Xbox Game Pass (Core or Ultimate) plan to play.”

A 30 day subscription to the game costs $14.99, 90 days costs $41.97, and 180 days costs $77.94. Xbox Game Pass Core, which is the cheapest tier, costs $9.99, $24.99 for three months, or $59.99 for a year. The cheapest Xbox players could play Final Fantasy 14 for per month is therefore $17.98 if they commit to the longest possible subscription of each. Xbox players will otherwise pay $24.98 if they choose to pay for both on a monthly basis.

PlayStation players are not required to own a PlayStation Plus subscription to play Final Fantasy 14, leaving many fans confused over why the Xbox equivalent is required. PC players don’t require any additional subscriptions either.

“Mind boggling decision,” said Super on ResetEra. “Xbox will be the only platform where you need paid online and the game subscription to play.” Yam’s chimed in too: “Greedy move. Not like you have time to benefit from a Game Pass subscription while playing an MMO.”

The blog post also confirmed the game will fully release on Xbox immediately upon the open beta’s conclusion, though it didn’t offer any idea as to when this may be.

In our 9/10 review of the game’s latest expansion, IGN said: “Final Fantasy 14’s Endwalker expansion brings its longest story arc to a satisfying close and cements its place as one of the best Final Fantasy stories ever told.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has dropped a significant $30 from its MSRP in a brand new sale at Best Buy. It’s down to just $39.99 for PS5 and Xbox, marking a serious saving on a game that came out just less than two months ago on December 7, 2023.

From what we can tell, this is the best price on the game at the moment, compared to the $50 pricepoint that is being offered at Amazon and Target. As they say, it can pay to be a patient gamer. If the $70 pricepoint was too steep for you, this new sale might just hit the sweet spot for many of us to pull the trigger on the latest entry into the famous franchise.

IGN reviewer Tristan Ogilvie gave the game a 7/10 in his review, stating: “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora features a stunning alien world to explore with a refreshingly uncluttered approach to navigation, countless enemy bases to destroy and Na’vi clan sidequests to complete, and no shortage of exotic flora and fauna to harvest and hunt.

“However, its combat is pretty one-dimensional, its mission design is a bit on the repetitive side, and its environment is generally lacking in any major surprises beyond visual splendor, meaning that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a solid shooting adventure that’s more inside the box than truly out of this world.

A Ubisoft exec has recently stated that gamers will need to get “comfortable” not owning their games for subscription models to take off. This comes after the launch of Ubisofts revamped subscription model titled Ubisoft+ Premium — which now costs $17.99/month and conceded with the recent launch of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Other gaming and tech deals to consider right now include Super Mario Bros. Wonder dropping down to just $49.99, alongside the 2023 Alienware Aurora RTX 4090 gaming PC for $3299.99 ($400 instant discount), and $100 off an Apple Watch Series 9 in the latest sales.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Who’s excited to dive back into the world of Gaia with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on PS5? We are as well, and what’s more, you can snag this rebooted adventure for a steal at Currys. By using code ‘REBIRTH20’, you can preorder the game for just £55.99—that’s 20% off and £14 off the RRP. That’s right, a saving that feels almost as good as summoning Bahamut in a boss fight.

This deal from Currys is giving us an offer that’s hard to resist. This is the best Final Fantasy VII Rebirth preorder deal in the UK right now, making it the perfect time to secure your copy and ensure you’re among the first to explore the expanded universe. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to save big and embark on an unforgettable adventure, as the game is set to release on February 29.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth promises to bring back the nostalgia, while adding layers of depth to the story and gameplay that we’ve been dreaming of since the original. The game is the highly anticipated second installment in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, taking the iconic story into its next chapter.

The anticipation surrounding the release of the game is palpable, with fans eagerly discussing how good they expect the game to be. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or a curious newcomer, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is shaping up to be an unforgettable journey through one of gaming’s most cherished universes.

We’ll be able to get a much closer look at the game next week, because it looks like a demo is on the way, giving fans a chance to try out the game and hopefully get their nostalgic juices flowing.

In our first hands-on preview of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, we said: “Story-wise, Rebirth again feels very familiar, and yet also different. This is due in part to the tremendous difference in scale and presentation. Here, like with Remake, areas that were previously sparse or bare are expanded out into lush zones to explore. But there are also little changes that are mostly inconsequential, but they still play out in different ways than fans of the original FF7 are used to.”

Joe O’Neill-Parker is a freelance writer and audio producer. He is the owner of O’Neill Multimedia. He writes commerce, sports, and audio-related tech articles for IGN.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and possibly Starfield are reportedly being considered for PS5, and this may indicate a new multi-platform approach inside Microsoft for certain Xbox games going forward if it proves to be true.

As reported by The Verge, a source with knowledge of Microsoft’s plans have claimed the company is “weighing up which titles will remain exclusive and others that will appear on Switch or PS5 in the future.” Indiana Jones is seemingly part of this new plan and could be one of the first to kick off this new strategy if it ends up happening.

Assuming this plan goes forward, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle appears set to launch exclusively on Xbox and PC in December 2024 and would arrive on PS5 after a “rather short period” that could just be “some months later.”

Once again, it’s important to take all this with a grain of salt as plans change all the time, but the conversations look to be happening inside Microsoft. This report also follows rumors that Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves may also be jumping to other platforms as well.

That’s not all, however, as XboxERA is reporting that Starfield may be another game to make its way to PS5. According to XboxERA’s sources, Microsoft may be planning to launch Bethesda’s space RPG on PS5 after the already announced Shattered Space expansion that is slated to arrive later in 2024.

Furthermore, it has been claimed Microsoft is making even more of an investment into PS5 dev kits to support this supposed multi-platform strategy it may adopt.

Ahead of Starfield’s launch, the question of its exclusivity was one of the biggest out there. While it turned out Starfield was exclusive, at least at launch, these potential new developments will also surely bring back The Elder Scrolls 6 into view.

While it hasn’t been 100% confirmed, Microsoft’s own internal documents have claimed it will skip PS5 and will only launch on Xbox and PC. Once again, plans change all the time, as is possibly evidenced by these reports, so it’s important not to take anything as fact until it happens.

For more, check out how Xbox is changing the nature of exclusivity and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s recent comments on how Microsoft can now be a “good publisher on Sony and Nintendo and PC and Xbox” following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

For years, many assumed Skull and Bones was a ghost ship; the Ubisoft pirate game that would never make it to harbour. Having suffered six public delays, it is one of the most frequently postponed games of all time. The near total silence that surrounded it year after year convinced people that it was either permanently anchored at the port of development hell, or that it had already sunk to the bottom of the ocean. But within the halls of Ubisoft Singapore, hundreds of developers were navigating a storm of design problems in hunt of their white whale.

Now, almost seven years since it was first revealed, Skull and Bones is ready to set sail. But this final version is very different to the game we first saw in 2017. Across its development journey the naval battler has changed forms multiple times, with its final design emerging from a major reboot that prolonged development and left several prototypes shipwrecked. This is the inside story of Skull and Bones’ many delays, and the challenges that caused them.

In Skull and Bones, the Indian Ocean is your playground. You’re free to explore its open world and hunt down the food and materials you need to survive in the golden age of piracy. You can take on contracts that build your infamy and push you towards the ultimate goal of becoming a fearsome pirate kingpin. Its story is minimalist, promoting your own adventures and the self-made tales of the other players that also sail these online seas.

But Skull and Bones wasn’t always this live-service, open-world survival game. In fact, Skull and Bones has been multiple different games – or at least ideas for games – before it became what it is today.

Our story starts in 2017, when Ubisoft revealed a brand new pirate game at its annual E3 conference. The presentation was led by creative director Justin Farren, a member of Ubisoft’s Singapore studio and a veteran producer of Assassin’s Creed since the days of Black Flag. On stage, Farren explained that “Skull and Bones takes place in a shared, systemic world where you can sail solo or form a gang of pirates with your friends, and together terrorise the trade routes of the Indian Ocean.” But that shared world was not what Ubisoft showed in its gameplay demonstration.

The stage demo showed off a 5v5 multiplayer mode called “Loot Hunt”, which seemed to be a naval-themed take on hero shooters like Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch, rather than the sort of seafaring MMO Farren had described. But Ubisoft assured that Skull and Bones would be bigger than what we’d seen; it would have a shared world, seasonal content, and a narrative campaign that would flow into the multiplayer experience.

All of this, Ubisoft said, would launch in the fall of 2018. One year later, just weeks before E3 2018, Skull and Bones was pushed back until “at least 2019”. Despite the delay, it was still part of Ubisoft’s E3 conference, and it looked radically different to how it did in 2017. Rather than 5v5 multiplayer, the new demo showcased a cooperative game in which players teamed up to take down a powerful enemy warship. Was this the shared world that had been promised the previous year? Or had Skull and Bones morphed into a different game entirely?

“We like to see it as an evolution of the game, and not a different game necessarily,” says Kris Kirkpatrick, lead technical art director at Ubisoft Singapore and a long-serving veteran of Skull and Bones. “We knew we had something great. It was feeling great. It was looking great. But why don’t we offer more?

“We wanted to do the biggest pirate and Naval open-world game we could do,” he says.

As E3 2018 drew to a close, few people would have anticipated the four years they would have to wait until they saw Skull and Bones again. The following year it was delayed until sometime after March 2020, and Ubisoft’s E3 2019 conference went ahead without even a single new screenshot. Just months later a third delay was announced. In 2020, Ubisoft revealed that the studio had found a “new vision”, which subsequently led to a fourth delay. As the years and delays went by, not a single thing was seen of Skull and Bones.

In July 2021 the long silence was broken, but not by Ubisoft. A damning report from Kotaku painted a picture of a studio in chaos. It claimed that over the course of eight years Skull and Bones had been helmed by three different creative directors, each of which worked to different documents, meaning that many concepts – including an Assassin’s Creed spin-off and the modes we’d seen at E3 – had been scrapped in favour of building different designs. Anonymous interviews with current and former developers suggested that the project was a mismanaged nightmare lacking direction. It was a report that raised dozens of questions, but the biggest of them was the simplest: what on Earth was happening inside Ubisoft Singapore?

Ubisoft Singapore started life in 2008 as a small support studio. Over the years it has grown from a handful of people to a few hundred staff, working on game franchises such as Prince of Persia and Ghost Recon. Its most famous creation, though, is Assassin’s Creed 3’s naval combat, which went on to form the foundations of AC4: Black Flag. With that series-defining success, the Singapore team saw a new and exciting future for themselves. They wanted to be more than a support studio. They wanted to take naval combat to the next level and create an original game of their own. But making a great game is far from an easy task, particularly when it’s your first time as a lead developer.

“There’s nothing in the video game industry that’s harder than building a new IP,” says Darryl Long, managing director of Ubisoft Singapore. “You think you know what the game is, but you’re really, in many ways, discovering as you go and finding out what resonates with your players. You need time to explore that.”

“You’re trying to find the recipe. You’re trying to find that core gameplay loop,” explains Kirkpatrick. “Not everything makes it, but you learn from all the things that don’t make it and hope that what’s left is the best it can be. It’s a journey.”

Creating a new game is difficult, but it’s even more of a challenge without leadership. In late 2018, creative director Justin Farren was making preparations to depart Ubisoft Singapore. He would leave the following summer. But the need for a new creative director raised questions about more than just leadership. What was this game’s identity? Was it a PvP multiplayer arena, or a co-op open-world? Was it a narrative campaign or a live-service game? If Skull and Bones was to survive this development storm, it needed help. The search was on for a new captain.

Ubisoft knew that Skull and Bones was in need of an experienced steady hand. That seniority was found in Elisabeth Pellen, a twenty-year plus Ubisoft veteran and Vice President of its Editorial Team. Pellen had significant experience in directing games with online features, and so it was believed she was ideally suited to a project attempting to work out its own multiplayer identity.

“[Ubisoft was] looking for someone to help them […] to turn the most promising prototypes and demos into a fuller game experience,” recalls Pellen.

Prototypes. Demos. Despite having initially planned for a 2018 release, Skull and Bones was still in the prototyping phase by the end of that year. And while the open world had been showcased at E3 that summer, internally Skull and Bones was still a small-scale multiplayer game.

“The five-versus-five was fun to play, but sometimes it was difficult for the player to manoeuvre inside an arena with such big ships,” Pellen says. “Because the ships didn’t have a lot of customizable options, it was difficult for us to project on the long term. With the open world, the game experience added more potential.”

But that potential was still in its early stages. Despite having been discussed as part of the initial reveal, the open world still didn’t exist beyond the demo built for E3 2018. So far, it was just a taste of what Ubisoft Singapore hoped Skull and Bones would one day become.

“The chunk of open world was a 15-minute demo that showcased different classes of ship. It was not yet an entire open world,” Pellen confirms. “[The development team] tried to develop the PvP arena and the open world in parallel, but it was a little bit challenging for the team because it was the first time that most of the talents had the opportunity to create their own IP.

“We thought that it would be safer and maybe more interesting for other players to fully focus on the open world,” she concludes.

If Skull and Bones was to succeed, the Ubisoft Singapore team would need to find its focus. On Pellen’s advice, all staff would move to the open world design and build that up from a demo into a full game. Any other idea the team wasn’t fully capable of building in parallel would be cancelled, and so the 5v5 mode was abandoned. A third mode – the previously promised narrative single-player campaign – was also in development, and that would also need to be scrapped.

“Building a solo campaign is really time-consuming,” Pellen admits. “We didn’t have the full team to deliver a full solo campaign.”

Beyond the issues with development of the game itself, Pellen observed that the Singapore studio was “isolated from the other studios and [Ubisoft] HQ”, and so believed that the team needed someone experienced in building and launching a complete, original game. Her long-term Ubisoft career put her in a good position to offer this expertise.

Skull & Bones – E3 2018 Screenshots

With Pellen as the ship’s new captain, Skull and Bones would finally find its true heading – the “new vision” that Ubisoft would later announce in 2020. But why a new vision? Why, after years of development, old visions, and little genuine progress, did Ubisoft not just cancel the entire project? Why were staff not reassigned to other games?

“That’s a question I’m sure many people have,” agrees Darryl Long. “Why has this game continued for so long? I think that in many other companies, maybe it wouldn’t have survived as long as it has.”

“Ubisoft supports projects they believe in, teams they believe in,” says Ryan Barnard, former senior game director on Skull and Bones. “This didn’t feel quite right, but they wanted to see what they could do and so they asked a very experienced creative to come in and take a look at how she could influence the project.”

There was, apparently, another factor, too. Kotaku’s report claimed that the studio made a deal with the local government that requires Ubisoft Singapore to launch an original game within the next few years. In short: the studio may be legally required to deliver Skull and Bones. When IGN asked if this is true, Ubisoft declined to comment.

Regardless of the details keeping it in development, one thing was clear: Skull and Bones needed reworking. It needed to leave its campaign and 5v5 mode behind and fully focus on the shared open-world that it had promised. And so Pellen moved to Singapore and took over as creative director, ready to rally the team around a new vision.

“I arrived on the project with one simple question: ‘How do you become a pirate?’” says Elisabeth Pellen. “What blew my mind was that, [during the age of piracy], all those legendary pirates in the Indian Ocean started with almost nothing. To become the rockstars of the 17th century they had to face unpredictable storms and survive mutinies, shark attacks, and sometimes starvation.

“Suddenly for me, it made this fantasy more relatable because it means that anyone could become a pirate.”

The idea of that journey became the foundation for Pellen’s vision: a live-service, open-world game all about survival. This new version of Skull and Bones would feature resource gathering, trading, and crafting. A deep progression system would chart your rise from a nobody to a notorious kingpin. If it was a key part of the dangerous life of a pirate, Pellen wanted it in the game.

“We really wanted to give the opportunity to the player to write their own story,” says Pellen. “Instead of working on a solo campaign that would have prevented the team from creating a really deep open world, we built lore that can be consumed like a puzzle in the order you want.”

Pellen’s vision was effectively a reboot that refocussed the team back to its original promise of a shared, systemic world. But where a reboot at Ubisoft would typically see a team reduced down to its core creatives and then slowly built back up as the game took form, Ubisoft Singapore was unable to do that.

“All the new IPs at Ubisoft went through one or two reboots,” Pellen explains. “In the case of Skull and Bones, we could not really reboot the game, because we could not run down the team. We had to continue. We had to make some adjustments, but to continue to work with 500 people.”

But the development team faced that challenge head on. By building the new vision around the core naval combat systems that the studio had already crafted for 5v5 multiplayer, they ensured that Skull and Bones did not have to be started again from scratch. Much of the team’s previous hard work would not be lost.

“There’s always things that you can salvage,” says Barnard. “A reboot is never a total reboot. The navigation, how the ship felt, all of those things [that were] in the game you saw [at E3], they felt good. But how do we bring that into a progression system for the player? How do we add more depth to that combat, and not just more ‘arcadey cannons go boom’ type of gameplay? All of that needed to be introduced to the game.”

“It got a lot bigger and technically it got a lot more complex,” recalls Kris Kirkpatrick, lead technical art director. “It is part of the reason why we need more time.”

Rallied around this new survival vision, the Singapore team geared up into full development. And by July 2022, four years after its last public showing, Ubisoft was confident enough in Skull and Bones to reveal its new form to the world. But rather than being met by unanimous applause, this re-reveal was greeted by cautious scepticism and mixed feelings from the gaming community.

“We [were] a little bit sad that some players expected Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag 2,” Pellen admits. “Since the beginning of this reboot, we collaborated with players through our insider programs and we did a lot of playtest sessions to be sure that the processes of creation [would] follow players’ expectations.”

The best feedback, of course, comes when players have actually been able to play the game. And that was planned to be soon – the re-reveal came with the first solid release date: November 8, 2022. In less than half a year, the team’s work would finally be in players’ hands.

Three months later, Ubisoft delayed Skull and Bones for the fifth time.

Three months after that, Ubisoft delayed Skull and Bones for the sixth time.

Six delays across six years. Few games have suffered as many publicly announced postponements as Skull and Bones. It’s a situation that’s damaged the game’s reputation, turning it into the butt of many internet jokes. But the re-reveal proved that Skull and Bones was still alive. Not just alive, but apparently on track. Almost ready, even. So what happened?

Skull and Bones’ early years saw the studio struggle to find the right design framework. That accounts for the first delay. But while the team was put on the right path when Elisabeth Pellen joined in 2019, the journey towards her survival-focused vision could not be finished within the initially planned timeline. The next four delays were the result of numerous design struggles, from technology shifts to simply ensuring the game was fun enough for players.

“The particularity of Skull and Bones is that our entire world is a social hub,” explains Pellen. “It’s a full seamless PvE and PvP experience supported by PvE servers. It required a lot of talent to work outside of their comfort zone.

“When you build a seamless world dedicated to generating emergent content, you have to accept that part of the content will escape your controller,” she continues. “It’s so difficult to control the player experience that it took us some while or so [to complete development].

“We had to involve partner studios as well, to gather different pieces of content and put them together and aggregate them into a world,” she adds. “It took some time. The more systemic a game is, the more bugs you have to fix as well.”

Further complicating things was the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles. The increased power of these machines was naturally a boon for an open world filled to the horizon with technologically-advanced water technology, and so the decision was made to make Skull and Bones a new-generation exclusive. The process to convert the game from old to new-gen took almost six months, and put the brakes on other aspects of development.

“When you port your game [to] a new engine, part of the team can’t work,” explains Pellen. “[They] can’t interact during that time.”

But complex work and shifting timelines weren’t the only issues endured by development staff. In the summer of 2020, the Singapore studio was caught up in the wave of allegations facing Ubisoft regarding workplace toxicity, harassment, and misconduct. Following an investigation, managing director Hugues Ricour was removed from his position in November 2020 in response to unacceptable behaviour. Ricour was reassigned to Ubisoft’s Paris HQ and replaced by Darryl Long, who moved to Singapore in March 2021.

Ubisoft Singapore’s managerial issues appear to extend beyond just Ricour, though. Posting to company review website Glassdoor, former staff have criticised studio management for lack of direction and incompetence. Talking to Kotaku, one former developer said “The toxic culture permeating the Singapore studio is in no small part responsible for most of the production issues—reboots, rebrands and re-reboots—that have plagued Skull & Bones for a decade.”

When asked if management had struggled to handle the project, a Ubisoft spokesperson said “The well-being of our teams is our first priority, and we are committed to continually improving our workplace and production policies and processes to ensure we’re offering a healthy work environment for all our teams. With regards to improving conditions during the rush to finalize a project, we have taken steps to manage this by implementing tools to facilitate more efficient project management, working closer with Quality Control teams early in development, and integrating more checkpoints during production to be better prepared for launch.

“In the Singapore studio, we have put in place flexible work policies and adapted benefits to support a healthy work life balance. We also have in place an employee wellness team, and are proud to have seen their work been recognized by several industry awards for their efforts in promoting mental and physical health. This is an ongoing process, and we must continue to be agile in order to build a better work environment for our teams.

“Our teams are fully focused and motivated to create great experiences for our players.”

Skull and Bones – The Complete Timeline

With so many development complications and pressures, delays have become a fact of life for Ubisoft Singapore’s developers. To work for so many years on a seemingly never-ending project can sometimes be discouraging, and so looking after the team’s mental health has been important.

“There is an impact,” says Kris Kirkpatrick. “We’re working really hard and of course we want people to experience and play what we’re working on, but I think it’s important not to be so end goal driven. So we accept that the delay means more time to make a better game.”

“It’s a tough one, right?” says Ryan Barnard. “It’s really about making sure that the team sees it as not a negative thing, because it almost never is. So really, it’s about team health. How do we make sure that the team understands why and what we want to accomplish with that extra time?”

“A great example of a feature that did get added later on in the development is the Infamy system,” says Darryl Long, referring to the progression system that charts your rise to pirate kingpin, with each level unlocking new tools. “In many ways, that’s one of the central pillars of the game.”

Alongside those delays, the project has also seen a rotation of senior staff. When it was announced in 2017, Bill Money was Skull and Bones’ game director, but he soon moved onto Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Associate game director Antoine Henry also moved onto AC: Valhalla in 2018, only to rejoin Skull and Bones in 2021 and then leave by the end of that December. Senior game director Ryan Barnard, who joined in 2021, would only stay with the studio until spring 2023. Creative director Justin Farren was replaced by Elisabeth Pellen, who has also since left the project, although Ubisoft says her creative duties are now complete. The result of these staff changes is that, in its final months of pre-release development, Skull and Bones has been captained by relative newcomers, with its senior producer and game director having joined the studio in 2022. Regardless of their experience, though, they’re still eager to deliver something special.

“I think the benefit for me coming in at the end was fresh eyes,” says Juen Yeow Mak, Skull and Bones’ current game director. “I had a lot of stuff that I could explore, I don’t have to be prototyping some things if it has been explored before.”

“There’s a lot of responsibility I think that we as a team have,” says senior producer Neven Dravinski. “The narrative is, ‘Hey, when is this game launching?’ When I showed up here, that was my goal immediately: ‘When are we going live?’”

Ubisoft has finally settled on a firm release date for Skull and Bones: February 16, 2024 – 15 months and two delays later than its previously planned November 2022 launch.

“At the end of the day, the game wasn’t where the company wanted it to be,” Dravinski reveals. “The last 12-18 months have been doubling down on the things that are great about this game, and so that required more time, that required more public-facing tests, more technical tests, more deep diving into the nuances of core naval combat.”

Over the past year, the team has made improvements to the ship classes, or ‘archetypes’, in an effort to better communicate which vessels are best fit for specific roles. As with many multiplayer games, there are DPS, tank, and support options, and the characteristics of each are now more pronounced and “pushed to the extremes”.

A closed beta test, held during the summer of 2023, helped shape a refreshed user interface, and ushered in a new character in the form of Asnah, your Singaporean first-mate, who acts as a living tutorial and guide. Additionally, one of the game’s most controversial mechanics has been reworked.

“One thing that came up a lot [in player feedback was the fact that] boarding is only a cutscene,” says Juen Yeow Mak. “So we acted upon it. Boarding is now [conducted] using grappling hooks. You need to aim, you need to have a feeling of range. It’s no longer as straightforward as just pressing a button.”

The past year has also seen Ubisoft Singapore reconsider Skull and Bones’ relationship with the supernatural elements that underpin popular seafaring stories like Pirates of the Caribbean and Monkey Island. While sea monsters have been hinted at in trailers since the initial reveal, when IGN visited the studio in 2022 the plan was to introduce mythical elements in future DLC. Those plans have since shifted, and the launch version of Skull and Bones will feature ocean beasts and ghost ships.

“Removing the constraints of historical accuracy really excited the team quite a bit,” says Dravinski. “We are investing in naval combat in a space that’s inspired by 17th century Indian Ocean piracy, but it’s really fun to be able to say, ‘What’s our next sea monster that we’re working on? How is the ghost ship moving forward from here?’”

“I think the more that we focused on the fun, the more that we focused on what was cool, I think the game then really took on a life of its own,” he adds. “And I think that’s put us now on the path to be able to, in a very public way, at the Game Awards say, ‘You know what? We are ready. We feel like we’ve accomplished what we were trying to do over the last couple of months. It’s time to get out there and go live.’”

For close to a decade, Ubisoft Singapore has been building and rebuilding Skull and Bones. The team, both long-serving veterans and recent recruits, have been through a lot. But they’ve finally made it to the harbour.

“It’s amazing the amount of resilience that they’ve shown,” says Darryl Long. “The changes in direction, these are things that the team has adjusted to as they go and said, ‘We’re not giving up. We’re going to ship this game and we’re going to make it great.’”

“It was not easy to create a great synergy between the navigation and the aiming system, but they succeeded,” says Pellen. “We developed it in a huge open world. I think it’s the biggest open world that Ubisoft has ever created. Now this open world offers a lot of opportunity to develop new activities, new narrative layers. We planted a lot of seeds that are exciting to grow.”

But the journey doesn’t end here. In many ways, it’s just the beginning. All of that hard work was in service of creating a live game that will continue to evolve. And so now development begins on DLC, seasonal content, and the future of Skull and Bones.

“The seasons will have themes,” reveals Ryan Barnard. “That’s where we may introduce new enemy types, new factions, some of the things we talked about, maybe more fantastical enemies. It’s also where we can react to the community and bring in new elements that maybe they’ve been asking for that we didn’t think of. But Ubisoft has already committed to this game for years in the future.”

With those seasonal ambitions, Ubisoft Singapore hopes that Skull and Bones is here to stay, and that players will find something to cherish among its lovingly created digital waves.

“I think players will find their own story in the game,” says Long. “If after they’ve played the game for five years, they’ll look back and they’ll say, ‘I was the one defining what it means to be an infamous pirate and I got to tell my own story’ – maybe at some point they’re ranked at the top of the world and they’d be able to look back and say, ‘I was the most infamous pirate in the world’ – I can’t think of anything cooler than that.”

Becoming the home for a passionate community of online pirates is the ultimate goal for Skull and Bones. But regardless of its eventual success, and despite the difficulties faced by staff, the journey to this point has been something important for Ubisoft Singapore.

“I do feel like Skull & Bones will be part of us for a long time,” says Kris Kirkpatrick. “It’s our first lead triple-A [game] coming out of Singapore. I hope we don’t forget about that. We should be proud of that.”

One huge reboot. Three release dates. Six delays. Skull and Bones’ journey across the development waters has been far from easy. Idea after idea had to be jettisoned and thrown away. High-profile departures and scandal rocked the studio. But the dedication of the development team helped see the project through even the darkest days.

Over many years Skull and Bones has been many things, but its final form is now ready to set sail. And that final form is, perhaps surprisingly, the one promised in its very first public appearance: a shared, systemic world in which players strive to become the ultimate pirate kingpin. But it’s a form that means that what Skull and Bones is today is likely not what it will be tomorrow. Its evolutionary cycle now begins anew, the design shifting and changing as Ubisoft Singapore reacts not just to the demands of its management, but its players, too. It’s a destiny that’s fitting of a game that’s constantly changed since its inception.

What will remain constant is the story. The story of a development team who endured everything in effort to bring their first complete, original game to life. Whatever that game was, whatever that game is, and whatever that game may be, the legend of Skull and Bones will long be as famous as the black and white flag its pirates fly.

The interviews in this article have been edited for length and clarity.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.

From GoldenEye 007 and Half-Life to Call of Duty and Escape From Tarkov, video games have created quite a bizarre trend when it comes to naming their virtual weaponry. But why exactly do video game weapon names sometimes seem so random? Is it a case of law? Licensing? Or a subject even more difficult to work around?

With the help of Keeper of Firearms & Artillery, Jonathan Ferguson, and a range of video game developers, we unpick the weird world of virtual firearm design and weapon names.

By
Dave Jewitt
,
Adam Mason
, and
Chris Morris
on February 4, 2024 at 7:00AM PST