After being delayed (again) from its November 8 release date, Skull and Bones is back in the news with a brand-new release date. If the new The Game Awards 2023 trailer is to be believed, Skull and Bones is now coming out on February 16.

The trailer doesn't show off any new gameplay for the upcoming naval combat game, but you do get a chance to see a very large crocodile-looking creature take a chomp out of a pirate ship, so that's pretty cool! Set in the Indian Ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy, Skull and Bones is a rags-to-riches story in which you play as a stranded pirate who slowly claws his way up the ladder of infamy until you become a feared captain.

According to creative director Elisabeth Pellen, Skull and Bones was never meant to be a spin-off of Black Flag despite the clear similarities between the two. "From the start, the mandate that the studio had received was to create their own IP and their own game," Pellen said. "But we thought that it would be a good idea to capitalize on the expertise of our tenant who created specifically the naval combat for [Black Flag]. And then they wanted to bring [the naval combat] to a new environment."

Skull and Bones is set to have a closed beta from December 15-18. Sign-ups are open now. Skull and Bones is set to launch for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PC, and Amazon Luna. For more from The Game Awards, check out all the winners and all the announcements.