Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2021

While the seasons changed outside, we were still enjoying the delights of Sea of Thieves Season One in March. We sprung (let’s just get the obvious pun out of the way nice and early) into action to celebrate our third anniversary with a heaping helping of freebies, events and merch, as well as new videos and all manner of silliness on social. We also won a BAFTA this month! One to add to the trophy cabinet next to Most Inebriated Woodland Creature 2001 and Peg-Leg Wearer of the Year 2018. Enough preamble: round-up powers, ACTIVATE!

Content Update

Much like last month, March’s update didn’t arrive until the 18th but as luck would have it, there were still two Events to get stuck into. The final rounds of the Festival of Fishing saw anglers of all stripes trying to hook themselves some Battlegills and Devilfish for The Hunter’s Call. And no sooner had you landed that big catch than the Gold Hoarders got you on the blower asking you to lend them a hand again in the Vault Raiders Event. You’d think they’d have discovered a better way to keep their gold safe that doesn’t potentially drown you when you go to make a withdrawal.

The March update to the Pirate Emporium introduced some shiny friends in the form of the Gold Curse Macaw and Alsatian, the mystical Sea of Sands Collection from sunnier climes, the latest freebie emote and a set of Showboater Weapon Poses for the show-offs among us. We’d have a go at spinning a cutlass like that, but we don’t want to take all our fingers and toes off. The Outpost shopkeepers also had a good old spring clean, tidying up their shelves and digging out some stock from the back room to join the usual raft of quality of life adjustments and tweaks washing ashore in this update. For all the juicy details, head over and peruse the March update release notes.

News and Features

We’re quite pleased about the BAFTA, naturally, but before that we were celebrating Sea of Thieves’ third anniversary by laying on some goodies – so a crop of special third anniversary items made their way to the Rare Store, along with the first issue in a new Sea of Thieves: Origins comic miniseries exploring the origins of important characters. Free to download from comiXology? Can’t say cheaper than that. We also released ‘The Golden Voyage’, the latest official Sea of Thieves track, that pairs perfectly with plundering profits from some poor picaroon. Positively pleasing, that piratical alliteration. Alright, we’ll stop now.

On the SoT site, alongside our regularly scheduled programming of updates to the Season One landing page and Events Hub, we put together a jam-packed summary of all those third anniversary festivities, as well as an understated but important article explaining the real-life inspiration for the Legend of Glitterbeard. Our Community and Creator Spotlights also made a welcome return, highlighting players who are doing cool things on the Sea of Thieves. March’s editions had us chatting with Race of Legends organiser Dread Pirate Doug, along with ever-fashionable streamer KroTukk. And speaking of streams and videos, in a segue that was expertly crafted…

Videos and Streams

Let’s talk videos! Before the March Pirate Emporium trailer, our latest Sea of Thieves News bulletin teased all the third anniversary fun, along with the Vault Raiders event, which we just had to follow up on with a separate video. We also made another special video full of big numbers and sweet stats dedicated to all you pirates who’ve cast off with us over the past three years! Yes, we’re talking to all 20 million of you.

As mentioned in our last round-up, Weekly Streams are currently in the dry dock but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been popping up on streams and enabling stream-related activities, oh no. We joined the folks over at Undead Labs for a spot of high seas fun while sporting the State of Decay-inspired Blighted Ship Set – it was chaotic, as you can no doubt imagine. The Xbox On team got some SoT streaming in too, while our Twitch Drops kept on dropping with more Gilded Phoenix equipment to give away, as well as the jolly Hornpipe Dance emote. Now what’s over the horizon for Season Two, you ask? Oh… it’s really foggy today, can’t see anything, sorry. Guess you’ll have to wait a little longer.

Social Channels

With anniversaries, International Women’s Day, that BAFTA win (did we mention that?) and other fun happening in March, you know our social channels were mighty busy. Twitter and Instagram hosted our ever-popular #SoTShot contests, which this time had pirates posing with their catches for The Hunter’s Call. Lots of moody shots of people fishing in the rain – very The Old Man and the Sea. We’re heading for more tropical locales for April’s first contest, as we task you with showing us your best shots from around the Ancient Isles.

There was plenty of action on our usual hashtags too: #SundayVibes had us watching the sun rise over Ancient Spire Outpost with a rousing hurdy-gurdy rendition of ‘Becalmed’, a ship waiting out a storm and then sailing out at first light, a foggy look at Discovery Ridge during a rainstorm (lovely if you need some white noise to help get you off to sleep) and then a jaunty banjo rendition of ‘Maiden Voyage’ before embarking on the eponymous sail. In #TriviaTuesday town, we got the hot goss on the ‘song’ of the merfolk, Ancient Vaults and Ramsey’s cursed pistol, as well as what purchases of the Sails of Hope will help fund at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Here are some other choice cuts of social media tomfoolery: a call for sail designs, people sharing their favourite Sea of Thieves stories, musings on anchor stopping and the eternal pirate question: are they new or not? Also, there was this weird note – we have no idea what it says, but maybe you lot can figure it out.

Now that spring has officially... you know, done the thing spring does, we’re prepared for our own changing of the seasons with the launch of Sea of Thieves Season Two on April 15th. For all the news fresh off the boat, check out the usual places: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and the official Forums and Discord server. Which social media channel should we sail to next? Answers on a brine-soaked postcard please…

Previously in 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2021