Welcome to Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life

Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life is out today and invites you to experience an epic original story to save the pirate’s way of life! Across five new Tall Tales, you’ll adventure across, beyond and below the Sea of Thieves alongside none other than Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean legend, Captain Jack Sparrow.

For the first time, you’ll embark upon adventures into the supernatural realm of the Sea of the Damned where forgotten pirate memories become real. You’ll also dive into the underwater realm of the Sunken Kingdom, seeing a world built out of the failed pirate dream. Your adventures will lead you into encounters with fearsome new foes as two pirate worlds collide and the dark desires of Davy Jones are set in motion.

This exciting new update is our most ambitious yet, and it’s been an incredible opportunity to collaborate with the team at Walt Disney Games to bring these new adventures to Sea of Thieves. To so many of us, this feels like a momentous step in the ongoing adventure of creating, expanding and enriching this game. Sea of Thieves was conceived as a world where you can experience, share and tell all your pirate stories.

Imagine the Possibilities…

Somewhere deep in the Caribbean and shrouded from the outside waters, there lies a hidden world where nautical folklore comes to life and where the freedom of the pirate life, untouched by the march of time, can live forever. In Sea of Thieves, our goal was to create not only an exciting new gameplay experience that cast players as the main characters within this world, but to create an experience rich with adventure and possibility, providing a sense of escapism into a colourful depiction of the pirate life and everything it entails.

The world of Sea of Thieves is inspired by many beloved books and movies that have depicted the pirate life, and of course prior games by Rare that have explored a love of the world of pirates. The theme is endearing to so many people because it inspires us to imagine a world where you can make your own rules, or at least bend them to your will – a world where your ship can take you anywhere you see on the horizon, where you share the peril and promise with your crew. It’s you and them bonded together against the world, and a tall ship and a star to sail her by is all you need.

I think this love of pirates commonly starts at a young age, either through a book or movie, with the more fantastical and romantic takes in the genre in most cases traced back to either Treasure Island or the original 1967 Pirates of the Caribbean theme park attraction.

Growing up, I’ll never forget the first time I was lucky enough to be able to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Walt Disney World. What struck me so powerfully was the sense of being transported into another world, where every sight and sound was carefully harnessed to immerse you and make you feel so many emotions – the anticipation of hearing the ominous talking skull when boarding the boats, the thrill of the foreboding skeleton scenes unfolding within the haunted grotto and the excitement of seeing the Wicked Wench galleon open fire on a town besieged by pirates. Attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion have been as much an inspiration on my personal journey to becoming a game designer as the games I grew up playing, and also started a lifelong fascination with the Walt Disney Company.

So many people have a connection to Disney, either through an experience at one of the theme parks, a favourite movie growing up or seeing the impact of beloved characters on younger members of a family. The connection they feel is genuine and heartfelt, and it comes from a lasting memory and an emotional impact that is sometimes hard for people to articulate. Though stirred by just a piece of entertainment, these feelings turn into a powerful sense of nostalgia and bring solace and strength when faced with hardships in life or when seeking deeper inspiration.

So many of us at Rare hold Disney, the worlds and characters, with deep affection, and I’ve always believed that there’s a parallel with what we strive to do at Rare. We want our players to feel the same way about the games and worlds we create.

Two Pirate Worlds Collide

The opportunity to collaborate with Disney in creating Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life has not only been personally fulfilling, I’ve seen the team’s passion and excitement inspire them to do truly incredible work. Bridging these two legendary pirate worlds needed to be handled with great care. Sea of Thieves has its own world, lore and characters, much like Pirates of the Caribbean, and the story we wanted to tell needed to move our world forwards, complementing and strengthening it.

We wanted to get right to the heart of what being a pirate on the Sea of Thieves represents, and through the eyes of newcomers like Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew, explore what the pirate life means to these famous characters and why the Sea of Thieves would be special to them. Would Captain Jack see the Sea of Thieves as just another legend like the Fountain of Youth? How would Davy Jones react upon discovering a world beyond the horizon where he’s essentially powerless? By exploring the deeper meaning behind both worlds, our goal has been to create something that feels authentic and delightful, especially if you’re a long-time fan of Sea of Thieves or Pirates of the Caribbean.

Most of all, when considering the adventures and possibilities in Sea of Thieves and the journey we’ve been on as creators and as a community, I hope our shared love of this game and the wider world of pirates is strengthened through this collaboration. In the care we’ve put into it and how it feels naturally at home in Sea of Thieves’ world, we want this to feel like it was always meant to be.

Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life is available from today as part of our free Season Three update. Find out more about what awaits you on our Season Three page, or dive straight into the page dedicated to Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life itself!