A major part of Skull and Bones moving into its second year is that there is a season reset. As part of this, players can only carry over up to 50,000 Pieces of Eight into the new season.

As for the story, Skull and Bones Year 2 Season 1 picks up right where Year 1 Season 4 left off with the reports of the DMC trying to strengthen its position in the Indian Ocean. Now, players will have to deal with an arms race between DMC and the Compagnie as they battle for control over the Indian Ocean. Along with all of this, there is also new technology being developed in the background, which can alter the course of war.

One of the major new features in the latest update to Skull and Bones is Item Ascension. Once players hit Infamy Tier 9, they will get the quest “Ascension and Modification”, which in turn will lead them to the Blacksmith where they can unlock the new feature. Through this, players can ascend their weapons with new modifications. Ascensions have three grades: Basic, Advanced, and Special.

Ascending an item also gives it Modification Slot, which can turn the item into an incredibly powerful tool for players to use in their adventures through the game.

For players that might want more challenge from the game, a new World Tier system has been added to Skull and Bones. With the pre-existing world being considered World Tier 1, players will be able to ascend up to World Tier 2: Cutthroat Seas when they reach the Kingpin Infamy Tier.

World Tier 2 will feature increased difficulty, but players will also start earning more loot and resources. Rewards across various activities, including world events, ships and towers, are increased when playing in World Tier 2.

A new ship-type has also been added to the game: the Schooner. Available after unlocking 45 tiers in the Smuggler Pass, the Schooner is a medium-sized ship that focuses on explosive damage. Its main perk is Fury, which, when activated, increases the damage and explosive effects of broadside weapons. A secondary perk, Volatile, can be unlocked at Ship Upgrade Rank 6, which further increases explosive damage while reducing weapon reload time.

The Honorless is a new time-limited event that will go live from May 6. Available until June 10, the event involves players taking on the titular Honorless for lucrative rewards that can be picked up at the event vendor. Rewards include the Divine Wind epic Bombard, the Kleine Kartouwe epic Demi-Cannon, and the Fuse-Fusing Station rare minor furniture.

Skull and Bones is available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details about the game, check out our review from its launch period.

However, Circana analyst and executive director Mat Piscatella revealed on BlueSky that it topped charts for each of its first three weeks. Furthermore, it’s ranked second in year-to-date dollar sales behind Monster Hunter Wilds. The data is based on dollar sales through April 5th, so it should be interesting to see if Shadows can continue the streak.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. Ubisoft announced over three million players roughly eight days after release and the second-highest day-one sales revenue for the franchise.

Of course, this is only the start with a 10+ hour expansion, Claws of Awaji, out this year. The development team is also “actively looking” at more challenging difficulty options.

Ohnaka is a central part of the narrative, running into protagonist Kay Vess while on the run from some space pirates. The two will team up to steal some treasure that allows Hondo to “return to his former glory,” per the marketing blurb. Based on the B-Wings appearing in the key art, the Rebel Alliance may become involved somehow.

Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate’s Fortune is out this Spring. We could learn the release date later this week, so stay tuned for more information.

The base game is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC with a Nintendo Switch 2 version coming this year. Despite an iffy launch, it received numerous updates and overhauls to its stealth, combat, enemy AI, and more. Check out our review for Wild Card, the first paid DLC, here.

According to Polygon, Ubisoft has responded to the lawsuit by filing a motion to have the case dismissed. As part of the case, Ubisoft’s lawyers have released a statement arguing that the plaintiffs don’t have a case because they don’t have ownership of the game. Rather, the lawyers argue, the players simply purchased a license to access the game in a limited capacity.

“Frustrated with Ubisoft’s recent decision to retire the game following a notice period delineated on the product’s packaging, Plaintiffs apply a kitchen sink approach on behalf of a putative class of nationwide customers, alleging eight causes of action including violations of California’s False Advertising Law, Unfair Competition Law, and Consumer Legal Remedies Act, as well as common law fraud and breach of warranty claims,” wrote Ubisoft’s lawyers.

The plaintiffs have since responded to Ubisoft’s argument by amending their lawsuit with pictures of the packaging for The Crew, which states that activation codes for the game would be valid until 2099. According to the plaintiffs, through this, Ubisoft “implied that [The Crew] would remain playable during this time and long thereafter.”

Last year, after servers for The Crew had been taken offline, Ubisoft had reportedly started revoking players’ access to the racing game. This is despite the fact that, since the servers were no longer available for an online-only game, there was no way for it to be played anyway. However, some players were holding out hope for The Crew to be preserved in some way through community-run servers.

Users started spotting that they no longer could even open up the game through their library page, being presented with a message reading “You no longer have access to this game. Why not check the store to pursue your adventures?”

Since the original release of The Crew, Ubisoft has further expanded the title through two sequels: The Crew 2 and, more recently, The Crew Motorfest. The latest title in the franchise, The Crew Motorfest, was originally only available on PC through Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store. The game was eventually released on Steam as well.

For more details, check out our review of The Crew Motorfest from back when it came out. In our review, we praised the moment-to-moment driving mechanics of the game, as well as its beautiful open world. Ultimately, despite questionable design choices with its progression mechanics, we still gave The Crew Motorfest a score of 8 out of 10.

According to the report, the camera angle for the new title has been described as being from a top-down view, with similarities being drawn with titles like XCOM and Diablo 4. On the gameplay front, a source has mentioned that it will be quite similar to XCOM, saying that one could “just watch some XCOM gameplay if you want to get an idea, I’d say it’s an updated version of that with cinematic cutscenes and so on.”

Players will take control of a squad of operators, each with their own special abilities, to take on different mission objectives. The general gameplay loop is said to have the player pick operators for each mission, depending on the kinds of objectives that need to be accomplished. Ubisoft is seemingly aiming for a campaign that will take players between 25 and 30 hours to finish.

The title is likely being developed under the new France-based subsidiary of Ubisoft that was announced back in March. A 25 percent minority stake of the subsidiary is owned by Tencent, who paid €1.16 billion as an investment into the new company. The subsidiary will oversee Ubisoft’s biggest franchises, including Rainbow Six.

As for Rainbow Six Siege, the major free update will be bringing with it a host of gameplay changes to the competitive title. Along with general improvements to the gameplay and engine, players will also be getting access to new abilities, including the option to use rappel lines to run along walls horizontally, as well as new environmental interaction options.

A major part of the Rainbow Six Siege X update will also revolve around creating more roadblocks for hackers and cheaters. To that end, more robust anti-tamper actions are being taken, including the new R6 ShieldGuard, which further encrypts the game’s executable files for each player. Check out our coverage of the announcement for more details.

Rainbow Six Siege X will also be getting the Dual Front 6-on-6 game mode, which combines attackers and defenders on both sides to create a larger-scale battleground where both teams have to take on objectives on their opponent’s side, will simultaneously also defending their own side.

The playable set of Operators in Dual Front will be an evolving list; while the frequency of the line-up changing hasn’t yet been revealed, Ubisoft has stated that it aims to keep gameplay in the new mode fresh by giving players fresh match-ups. For more details on the game mode, check out coverage.

Rainbow Six Siege X will be a free update available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The update will also be turning the game free-to-play, which means that new players can join the game without having to buy a copy once the update lands.

Several major third-party multiplatform games that have been previously elsewhere were officially announced for the Switch 2. That includes the likes of Split Fiction, Star Wars Outlaws, Civilization 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Wild Hearts, Two Point Museum, and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. Separately, Sega also announced Sonic X Shadow Generations for the upcoming Nintendo console. 

Split Fiction, Civilization 7, Hogwarts Legacy, and Kunitsu-Gami will be available for the Switch 2 on launch day, which is June 5, while Wild Hearts will arrive later that month, on July 25. Meanwhile, Two Point Museum, Sonic X Shadow Generations, and Star Wars Outlaws will all launch before the end of 2025. 

That isn’t the extent of confirmed third-party support for the Switch 2 either. Several major games have been confirmed, including Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, Hitman: World of Assassination and Project 007, Borderlands 4, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, and others.  

Speaking to GamesRadar, creative director Jonathan Dumont spoke about how the game uses yellow paint to let players know at a quick glance what nearby ledges and platforms can be used for parkour. In the conversation, Dumont revealed that earlier builds of Assassin’s Creed Shadows didn’t use the yellow paint at all. It was, in fact, added in later because of playtesters getting confused about what they could and couldn’t parkour on.

“Well, we didn’t have it until players were really struggling in playtests to find their path when engaging in hidden trails activity,” said Dumont. “The environment is lush and full, and giving a bit of guidance was needed.”

This should come as no surprise, since the use of markers like yellow paint for objects that can be interacted with or jumped on largely came about when visuals in video games started getting more and more photorealistic. This could even be seen in titles going all the way back to early PS4 releases. Even older Assassin’s Creed games were not immune from this; Assassin’s Creed 2, for example, used white cloth as an indicator of an object that could be used to start a parkour trail.

Dumont also revealed last month that, while Assassin’s Creed Shadows got delayed quite a few times leading up to its release, the extra time wasn’t used to make any sweeping changes to the game. Rather, the developers made use of the extra time they were afforded by polishing the game as much as they could.

“We were basically trying to make the most polished game that we [can],” said Dumont, going on to say that the delays were because, “our game was there, so just making sure that we don’t have bugs and that the experience is clean for people.”

The few things that the studio did add to the game during the delays were scenes that would help in fleshing out the relationships between characters in better ways. “We had a few already, and people love those things,” he said. “So alright, let’s try to get a little bit more in there.”

Assassin’s Creed Shadows was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 20. Since then, the game has proven to be quite successful. A recent report revealed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was the US’s best-selling game of the week it came out in in terms of dollar sales. Overall, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has ended up becoming the second biggest game launch of the year, right behind Monster Hunter Wilds, which recently celebrated having sold 10 million copies.

For more details about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, check out our review. Also check out 15 small details that stand out in the game thanks to its attention to detail.

This is according to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson on Twitter, who reaffirmed that the multiplayer title’s release “should be this year.” Of course, plans may have changed at Ubisoft, especially with how it shuttered live-service projects, like the recent XDefiant.

Announced in September 2022, Assassin’s Creed Invictus is a multiplayer title that could be free-to-play and potentially feature crossovers between characters from various periods. Developers with experience working on Rainbow Six Siege and For Honor are working on the project. However, Ubisoft plans for it to be “much more approachable and mass market” than the multiplayer modes from previous entries, per VP executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté.

Stay tuned for more details, and in the meantime, check out our review for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. You can also learn more about the next mainline title, Codename HEXE.

Should be this year

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) March 31, 2025

Taking to BlueSky, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella recently revealed that in the week of its release, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was the best-selling game in the United States in terms of dollar sales. It is, in fact, already one of the top five best-selling games of the year in the US so far. The open world action RPG enjoyed the second-biggest launch for a game in 2025, behind only Monster Hunter Wilds. 

Assassin’s Creed Shadows also had the biggest physical launch of the year in the UK, and reportedly Ubisoft’s second-biggest launch of all time, second only to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Read our review of the game through here.

According to Dumont, the team working on updates for Assassin’s Creed Shadows is “always listening and monitoring what players are doing,” in order to bring out timely bug fixes and other potential features down the line.

Dumont also spoke about how the studio is “actively looking at” ways at “making even a tougher difficulty for some of our players.” While he didn’t go into detail about what this harder difficulty would entail, it would be an interesting exercise, considering the hybrid mix of RPG and stealth gameplay that Assassin’s Creed Shadows provides.

“How challenging do you want it,” asked Dumont. “But we’re looking at these things and monitoring what people say about the game.”

He also spoke the variety in feedback that Ubisoft has been getting for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and how the development team can’t take every suggestion into account for future updates.

“Obviously, we can’t do everything, but there are things that we’re going to be actioning on, and just for the next updates, there are quite a bit of bug fixes and little feature enhancement stuff that is coming in,” said Dumont. “I can’t just make a list. There’s quite a bit of it. So the team is always working to improve the game, and hopefully, people will be able to see the difference when they’re playing Shadows in the upcoming months.”

Assassin’s Creed Shadows hit PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 20. Leading up to its release, however, there was quite a bit of uncertainty about the game because of its release date getting constantly delayed. In another interview, Dumont revealed that the development team actually used the delays to further polish up Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

“Not really,” responded Dumont when asked if the reception of Star Wars Outlaws had anything to do with the game’s myriad delays. “We were basically trying to make the most polished game that we [can].” He went on to say that the delays were because, “our game was there, so just making sure that we don’t have bugs and that the experience is clean for people.”

Dumont also spoke about a few additions the team was able to make to Assassin’s Creed Shadows thanks to its delays, including additional character moments that further help develop relationships. “It’s kind of cool also that we were close to launch, and then we get this extra time to do the things that typically you’re doing at the end,” he said.

For more details on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, check out our review. And as for why it might be so popular, check out our thoughts. In the meantime, also take a look at our guide about the best legendary gear sets from the game and where you can find them.