Pirate Emporium Launches with Pets, Emotes and Liveries

We’re looking forward to this month’s content update, Smuggler’s Fortune, which will go live on Wednesday. It’s a big release and contains a lot of content including new Voyages, Duke’s Black Market cosmetic shop where players can spend Doubloons and gold, more aggressive Skeleton Ships and even roaming Skeleton Sloops!

We’re also very pleased to finally launch the Pirate Emporium, our new premium store selling a range of items such as pets, emotes and ship liveries including some that celebrate Rare’s rich heritage.

Following our preview stream where we went into detail about the Pirate Emporium, I also wanted to write a post here to make sure everyone knows what’s coming and what to expect. While we’ve always been 100% open about our plans to introduce premium Sea of Thieves items purchasable with real money, we realise that it’s an emotive subject and we want to make sure everyone is kept in the loop.

Firstly, I’d like to share a bit more information about how this store will work. The Pirate Emporium can be accessed in two ways: from the main menu screen when you first access the game, or in-game above the Order of Souls at any Outpost (or in The Arena tavern). Once there, you’ll find a range of initial items including monkeys and parrots to purchase as pets, a set of new emotes that can be added to your emote radial and a full ship livery set inspired by Rare’s beloved Banjo-Kazooie games.

To buy items from the Pirate Emporium, you’ll need a new currency called Ancient Coins. These can be purchased directly from the Xbox Store or from the Emporium in-game, and they are available in five bundles ranging from 150 coins costing $1.99 to a bundle of 4,250 coins at $34.99. Ancient Coins can also be found emergently in-game by finding and killing Ancient Skeletons, but these encounters will be a rare surprise so make sure you keep your wits about you and take them down when they do appear!

With Sea of Thieves having been live for 18 months now, the time feels right to finally add a premium store. It’s an important step forward for us and will help ensure the game’s long-term sustainability. That said, this wasn’t a decision we made lightly, and we have tried to bring the Pirate Emporium to the game in a way that respects our players and community.

When thinking about how our Emporium should operate, the team were guided by three key principles which help to ensure that players get a fair deal. These principles are:

• Transparency: Players should always know what they are buying and how much it will cost. There are no random loot box mechanics in our premium store.

• Fairness: Everything we bring to the Pirate Emporium will be entirely optional for players. While we will sometimes rotate items in and out of the store, we will make sure that this isn’t done too quickly and players have plenty of opportunity to get the items they want. This is something we have been working through with our Insiders during testing, and we’ve heard their feedback and taken it on board.

• No pay-to-win: Everything in the Pirate Emporium is purely cosmetic and doesn’t have any impact on abilities, stats or power, ensuring that there will always be a level playing field regardless of amount spent.

If you don’t find anything in the Pirate Emporium that grabs you at launch, check back each month as we add new items with each of our ongoing Monthly Content Updates.

Meanwhile, if you have feedback on the Pirate Emporium – or any element of the Smuggler’s Fortune update – be sure to visit the official Sea of Thieves Forums.

See you on the seas!