List of News Articles - February Press Embargo Lifted

"Pay to win is completely out of the question."

"What I will confirm is there are no microtransactions for launch. At all," design director Mike Chapman tells us during a recent studio visit. "Based on us continuing to build this game, we'll probably consider some form of microtransaction. What we will say is there will never be loot crates in Sea of Thieves."

Joe Donnelly  /  Feb 13, 2018  /  Action

'There will never be loot crates in Sea of Thieves,' says design director

"Pay to win is completely out of the question."

In other words, there will not be any loot boxes. Instead, you will be able to purchase a pet. These pets do not offer a mechanical advantage, though they will bolster the game’s social nature, your pet interacting with your avatar and your crew.

“It’s fun for everyone, regardless of whether they were the one who bought it or not,” Neate explains. “So if I have a monkey, I can hold it, because it’s a monkey and we can hold most things in our game. But you could also hold it, then you could run off and drop it over the side [of the ship] because that's funny.

Kirk McKeand  /  Feb 13, 2018  /  Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves is getting microtransaction pets a few months after launch

Sea of Thieves launches for Windows 10 and Xbox One on March 20. Developers Rare will spend the first few months focused on making sure everything is smooth sailing, but they are planning to release the first big update a few months down the line. That update will introduce microtransactions to the

We're also looking at what's our first major update to the game. For now, the focus is on the best launch experience possible, no question, no argument. As we move into our service, probably three months after launch, that would be when we first our first major significant update, outside of smaller things here and there.

Pets will be our first feature that will allow players to spend additional money. We'll treat it in the right way, and I want to be able to fire pets out of cannons. I'll fight tooth and nail with our design team to get it done. A cat will always land on its feet, of course, because it's a cat … it's just a bit of fun and silliness.

Jez Corden  /  Feb 13, 2018  /  Xbox

Sea of Thieves and the future: Ditching loot crates for pirate pet pals, DLC plans, and more

Sea of Thieves seems like the perfect game to fit into the dreaded loot crate model, but Rare has other plans.

@ecljpse We'll keep adding to this through the day and try and highlight answers to the Community's recent concerns for those who might not have time to read.... such a lot of reading! If you see anything relevant, feel free to post it here too!

PvE-only areas
"Never," says Chapman.

Actual loot, not just chests you can sell
"There are treasure artefacts in the game for launch that aren't in a chest. That's in the game for launch."

More pastimes and activities when you're aboard
"There's more of that for launch with the animals and all the fun encounters that can happen when you're on the ship, but even beyond launch we'll add more in that area, undoubtedly."

More songs, possibly tied to quests
"100%. Will happen," says design director Mike Chapman."

Lots of ships to choose from
"Will we do more ships in the future? I think so, I think there's a possibility. We'd look at it for sure."

"I ask Chapman if more styles of ship will be added, not just ships determined by the number of people aboard. "I think so, I think we'll look at that kind of thing. There's some plans about how we extend the gameplay post-launch that ties quite well into ships, but no definite plans at the moment."

Custom persistent servers and mods
"We have talked about it," says PC design lead Ted Timmins. "The thing that gives me great confidence about Sea of Thieves is we're 150+ updates into a game that isn't even out yet, and when we talk to our community, we do try to say, 'we might not have everything you want at launch, but we're pretty good at listening and acting and very very good at updates'."

There's a much wider discussion to be had around that kind of stuff, because the way that our services work, they're all quite expensive, dedicated servers, because when we had initial discussions, [we decided] players prefer dedicated servers, let's totally focus on that. But then if you were to have a private server you could effectively be the only person in that server at a huge cost.

"So, yes, we're talking about it, and is there more to talk about? Yes. For now it's about matchmaking with your crew and friends. That's our initial goal. And beyond that, we'll look to alliances and potentially guilds or factions or whatever we term it in Sea of Thieves."

Samuel Roberts  /  Feb 13, 2018  /  Action

Rare reveals if the 8 things we want from Sea of Thieves will be there at launch

Wishful pirating.

Character customization

Edit more info -

....you begin in a tavern, with eight procedurally-generated pirates to inspect. They’re created based on twenty different parameters - everything from age, to body shape, to overall ‘wonkiness’ (essentially, how asymmetrical they are) - leading to a “practically infinite” number of variations. If you don’t like the 8 you’re shown, you can regenerate another 8 as many times as you like until you find a favourite.

Just make sure you’re sure you want to spend hours with your pirate - you never get a chance to alter their physical appearance again.

IGN A Rogues' Gallery

Sea of Thieves won't have dozens of sliders and dials, allowing you to finely tune the shape of your nose or cheekbones. Instead, Rare has attempted to strike a balance between customizability and accessibility.

When you initially make your character in Sea of Thieves, you will be presented with a carousel of eight, completely randomly generated pirates, pulling from a potential pool of millions. The idea is that no two pirates will look the same, even if, like most players, you simply hit the "play now" button and go with whatever design you're given.

Additionally, Rare will let you reroll the pirate generator carousel an infinite number of times until you find the pirate that's right for you. It's important to note too that hitboxes will be normalized, so picking a smaller pirate won't help you.

Be wary though, once you pick, that's it, you become locked in, and that character becomes tied to your gamer tag on Xbox Live. Rare wants player identity to truly matter in Sea of Thieves, to the point where specific players will be recognizable from their character models alone.

Windows Central

Server Size

It's never been quite clear how many players will be able to fit in a Sea of Thieves server, and it turns out there's a very good reason for that -

The developer's focus is on keeping player encounters regular, but not too frequent - the magic number is apparently to see another ship, on average, every fifteen minutes to half an hour, making every encounter different, as well as giving non-violent players the chance to escape.

The upshot is that, practically, there's no hard-and-fast maximum or minimum number of players in one Sea of Thieves server as long as everyone's still hitting that magic number, and it should never really feel like you're being placed and replaced into new versions of the world.

SEA OF THIEVES HAS A VERY SMART APPROACH TO SERVER SIZE

Why Crew Size is 4 Players
Sea of Thieves will launch with a maximum crew size (and therefore party size) of four.

"If the two of us were to go out to the pub together with two other friends, you've got that intimate relationship, you're all getting on together. If it becomes six or eight people, you start getting people splintering off and it's really hard to communicate - four seems like the magic number."

SEA OF THIEVES DEV EXPLAINS WHY THE MAXIMUM CREW SIZE IS 4 PLAYERS

Crew Management?

One element of how crews work will change from the beta to the main game, however. One player could now sail a four-person galleon alone, using the game’s “Make Friends” emote to manually gather a crew. On the other hand, four people could use one small sloop – Chapman explains that this could even be used as a surprise attack tactic.

Sea of Thieves Dev Explains Why the Maximum Crew Size Is 4 Players

You can try manning a galleon alone, log out, and then over-fill a sloop with four players

IGN