Age of Pirates: Captain Blood

Captain Blood, formerly known as Age of Pirates: Captain Blood, is an upcoming action-adventure game based on the novels by Rafael Sabatini about the titular Captain Blood. The player will assume the role of the Captain, following his adventures in 1685 Spanish Main.

The game is notable for being in development for 10 years before being abandoned due to legal issues. Captain Blood had been rated by the PEGI rating board and was to be released by 1C before a lawsuit resulted in the project being shelved.

A re-reveal of the game was made in June 2024. It is scheduled to release in the fall of 2024 on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Gameplay
Captain Blood is a pirate-themed hack and slash action game that featured a mission-based structure, allowing players to fight on both land and sea against hordes of enemies, with ship-to-ship battles and sword fights to gain control of invaded ships. Gamers gain special points as they defeat enemies, acquiring new fighting techniques and gold for weapons and equipment. The game was cancelled because it didn't get the excitement needed to make a considerable buck, and so the idea was scrapped and subsequently cancelled.

Development
In 2003, it was announced that Akella, developer of Sea Dogs and Pirates of the Caribbean, would make a game based on the Sabatini novels. Development on the game was restarted at the end of the year when new project leads took over. The game was featured at E3 2004 as part of publisher 1C Company's lineup of titles. However, by the end of the year, the project was restarted again, taking on a more mature tone. The development team was split into a SeaDogs team (Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales) and a SeaWolves team (Captain Blood).

Playlogic signed on in 2005 to be the game's publisher in Europe and the United States, and development was once again restarted in 2006. By 2008, Akella sold its internal SeaWolves team to Russian publisher 1C following a legal battle with Playlogic over rights to the series; development was then further delayed. In June 2008, a trailer was released and media outlets were able to play the game. A website launched in July 2010. Around the same time, Playlogic declared bankruptcy and underwent restructuring.

After 10 years of inactivity, the full 1.0 version of the game was leaked online and made available on torrent sites. Source code of the game engine was released on GitHub under GPLv3 on November 28, 2022.

Release
The game was set to be released in 2006 on PC and the Xbox, but was subsequently moved to the Xbox 360. On June 17, 2024, a new trailer for the game was released. Captain Blood is scheduled to release in the fall of 2024 on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.