Some prospective Sea of Thieves players may question the decision to include microtransactions, but Neate has an explanation for the business model. "Ultimately I have to look at the reality of running a game-as-service as a business," says the executive producer, adding that "My goal and everyone else's goal here is to have as many people as possible working on this, and just keep giving people reasons to return, reasons to have fun. We have to run that like a business, you need revenue coming

Sea of Thieves looks to be the latest in the plethora of new and upcoming shared-world games. The shared world concept is still fairly new for console gamers, and seems to pull together the best of role playing games and massive multiplayer online games into a full online world that gives players the opportunity to interact with each other, work together, and fight one another in an epic wo

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 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

[pullquote]You need each crew member to be controlling a different part of the ship. Someone needs to steer, another needs to watch for land from the crow’s nest, someone can man the cannons, and someone has to patch up the inevitable holes in the ship.[/pullqu

Many gamers have been asking about the possibility of customizing their galleons, and it looks there are a variety of ways to do this in the full game. Files have been found for a healthy selection of hulls, ranging from red, white, or black, all the way to barnacled, adventurer, and a design simply called "Old Bettsy". The same categories also exist for the sails, pennants, and flags – a strong indicator that crews will be able to vote on a flag to sail under. As expected, player customization will also be much more in-depth, with a healthy portion of tattoos, eye patches, beards, hooks, and pegs up for select

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

The addition of harpoon guns brings some exciting possibilities for underwater combat and maneuvering: it's a great shark deterrent (as it's likely gunpowder-based weapons won't be usable under water post-beta), and also brings the possibility that pirates will be able to attach themselves to opposing ships via the harpoons and potentially sneak up the sides. Of course, that's not the only new weapon to watch out for. The boarding axe, heavy sword, rapier, flintlock pistol, and blunderbuss will also be featured in the full version of Sea of Thiev

Tomas: This is where my one problem with what we played of Sea of Thieves story guide|https://seaofthievesfans.com/ of Thieves arose. While Noah, Logan, and Azario manned the ship, I was tasked with guarding the chest, as it supposedly could sabotage us on our way back. Unfortunately, this never happened so I was just stuck standing around the last couple minutes of our demo. I am worried that there will be periods in the game where certain crew members won’t have anything to do, making the experience realistic, albeit boring for t

While all this should be taken with a grain of salt, it's easy to see why a Rare and Microsoft would be gearing up for an open beta. With the hype surrounding the game right now thanks to the closed-beta and high twitch viewership, not to mention a limited edition controller set to be released, the studios would want to keep riding this high up until the game's release and an open-beta could go a long way towards t

Noah: To think, the four of us were sailing around the ocean, looking for islands with treasure, avoiding rocks, all while other pirate crews were out there in the blue beyond just waiting to plunder us. The game doesn’t make traversing the most beautifully rendered ocean I’ve ever seen easy either: you need each crew member to be controlling a different part of the ship. Someone needs to steer, another needs to watch for land from the crow’s nest, someone can man the cannons, and someone has to patch up the inevitable holes in the s