With the recent release of the Xbox One S, and the impending launch of Project Scorpio, Xbox fans have plenty to look forward to this year. Additionally, with Microsoft "very focused" on first-party titles , it seems Xbox is giving gamers plenty of reason to pay attent

Naturally, then, gamers have been eager to find out exactly what the online component of Sea of Thieves ' multiplayer would entail. Unfortunately, those expecting that the title would be free-to-play once initially purchased are going to be sorely disappointed. Sea of Thieves design director Gregg Mayles shot down the idea of a free multiplayer experience in an interview with Eurogamer at E3 2016 yester

At the upcoming E3 event, Phil Spencer and the rest of the Xbox crew are planning to give plenty of stage time to the games coming for the Microsoft console. And while not every game coming out this year has yet been revealed, there are plenty that have already been announced and are set to arrive in the coming months. In that vein, here are five Xbox One exclusives on the horizon that look poised for succ

Sea of Thieves , the forthcoming Microsoft exclusive , is being pitched as a games as a service-style game. Publisher Microsoft sees it as the sort of game that players will want to keep coming back to month after month. It comes as little surprise then, that like so many other games as a service, Sea of Thieves will also include microtransacti

The beta for Sea of Thieves happened recently, and to not many people's surprise, dataminers got a hold of the game's data. What perhaps was not expected is what they found hidden beneath the sea of c

Imagine taking the spirit of adventure from The Goonies, combining it with the immersive shared world experience found in the game Journey, and transplant it to a pirate ship. The result is what Rare is attempting to create with their next major game Sea of Thieves, which is a massive multiplayer pirate game . MMPG is not a recognized term in the gaming world, but it is basically what it sounds like. A group of friends get together on a pirate ship and do pirate things together. This can include exploring the seven seas, going on hunts for buried treasure, going to battle with other pirate ships, or just enjoying a rowdy booze cruise on the ship drinking and making music.

Below will challenge players with a mysterious, randomly-generated island where exploration, discovery, and survival are at the forefront of the experience. The game is said to offer a Dark Souls level of danger and intrigue with its combat, which by itself will continue to garner incredible attention until the game’s release later this y

Undead Labs has revealed that it plans to release new details about State of Decay 2 at this year’s E3, but in the meantime has released a handful of screenshots and a reveal trailer that show how much the developer has learned these last few years. It’s obvious the sequel will incorporate many of the features gamers loved about State of Decay , while also injecting new features that players have been asking for since the first game in the series released. There’s little doubt State of Decay 2 will be one of Xbox’s most successful exclusives this y

What do you think about Sea of Thieves not being free-to-play? Is it fair for developers to still take this approach to multiplayer content, or has the era of paid multiplayer business models started to fade away? Let us know in the comments be

This isn't commentary on the fact that Skull & Bones has all the potential in the world to muscle in on Sea of Thieves ' territory, either. We went hands on with Rare's upcoming multiplayer pirate experience and came away wanting more, both in terms of gameplay (because it was good) and features (because it seemed largely the same). Sea of Thieves is still a good game, and there's some enjoyment to be had within its colorful pirate world, but it feels like it hasn't evolved since the last time we saw it, and that's cause for some disappointm

Sea of Thieves is primarily about social interaction between the players in the shared world experience. Whether playing with real life friends, regular online gaming partners, or complete strangers, the goal is to interact and work together as a crew. In game ice breakers will be included to help strangers loosen up and bond with each other, an analogy that was given was it is like going to a pub to have a drink and meet new friends.

This cosmetic content will "either be on a shoulder, like a monkey, or like a cat on the ship" or even potions that change the appearance of the player character (e.g a potion that makes them look very old). Neate also suggests that Sea of Thieves players will be able to earn the currency to unlock this content through normal play. For example, players may be able to earn premium currency as a reward for https://Seaofthievesfans.com completing high-level quests, or the content could even be found in the game world. Neate also says that anything available via microtransactions will provide "emotional value, not mechanical val