How popular do you think sea of thieves is now?

@shakes-mcqueen yeah I am with ya as I hope it continues. I will say in watching summit's streams, I do think it's one of his main games he will come back to as he had said things along those lines. I know cdn is another big streamer who has some staying power with the pirate games and a few other non u.s. guys.

@shakes-mcqueen your 100% correct on both fronts. I think RARE should make it easier for everyone to enjoy the pirate and especially the spygate games themselves by either purchasing the rights from ceez or like u said partner. The games are right up there with the occasional summit athena steal if not even more entertaining at times.

@acebead40319154 The game is def doing better because of summit. He brought in a lot of new players, got old players back, and is keeping current players engaged. It's up to Rare to capitalize on this sort of second wind, but so far they are messing it up. Watching summits streams or just playing now after the weapon changes is really painful. The combat was not by any means great before, but now it's in really bad shape. Between the gun changes making the EoR worthless and all other guns clunky and painful to use, buffing the sword so that it's even more of a menace than it was before, and hit recognition now being one of the worst in any game i've seen, it's not looking good. Hopefully they can turn it around, but they are WAY to slow to fix these glaring and game-breaking issues.

@acebead40319154 Game is doing fine, ranked #26 on most played Xbox One games last week - dropping one place from last week.

@dyfrin lol, is scale bound that game with dragons that doesn't exist?

@dlchief58 good information there... I also think joe neate said the player base doubled at some point recently if I am not mistaken.

@betsill hole heartedly with you? Do you think it is just a PR issue as to why they are not supporting summits tactics and recognizing that the way he plays is truly good tv and also an entertaining way to play? Outside of the sneaking of course as I know the mercenary quests are partly because of summits guilded athenas steals.

It's popularity waxes and wanes with its dolling out of content.

After each unique or interesting content drop, people rush to see what's new, realize it ain't that much or only quasi interesting, play it for a couple days, maybe a week, and then abandon ship.

I find it a fun break from the Battle Royale shtick but hesitate to play it as none of my friends and family are really that interested.
Typical sessions go as such: work for 2-4 hours just to buy 'nother boring peg-leg or simply lose everything to irritating PvPers, an overzealous skellie ship or a persistent meg.

With ARENA, this game is going to see yet another wave that might last a month or so.
With Personal Servers, this game will last for several years more.

I KNOW that the more options they design into the game so that players can finally "BE THE PIRATE THEY WANT TO BE"....the longer the game will last.

Anything else is merely a new skin on an already unremarkable aesthetic.

@acebead40319154 1st line wasnt a question.. I am with you.

@lil-fokker yeah, you are probably right and interesting point on the private servers... not a huge fan but in all honesty this would open up lots of doors for pirate games and stuff like that and probably has quite a bit of staying power.

@acebead40319154 Rare's PR of the game completely contradicts the type of game they made. They made a game that revolves around the most predatory type of game-play I think i've seen in gaming, yet try to portray the game as some wonderland for all ages where everyone gets along and has magical adventures. It's a big reason why you meet people that completely freak out when you steal from them and report you. Part is because they are just way to sensitive, but I think it's mostly because Rare is giving a misleading narrative about the game to players.

@betsill lol, exactly right. Funny isnt it. I think the only reason I kept playing the game initially is I was finding some chests and everything was calm and then a storm hit, I got struck off my boat, respawn on a new boat, finally got one chest and then got destroyed by another player. I thought to myself, now this is exciting... little did I know it would mostly be pve with occasional pvp from there. I dont instigate a lot but love the threat... now I think the skelly ships are more threatening than most players.

@betsill said in How popular do you think sea of thieves is now?:

@acebead40319154 Rare's PR of the game completely contradicts the type of game they made. They made a game that revolves around the most predatory type of game-play I think i've seen in gaming, yet try to portray the game as some wonderland for all ages where everyone gets along and has magical adventures. It's a big reason why you meet people that completely freak out when you steal from them and report you. Part is because they are just way to sedative, but I think it's mostly because Rare is giving a misleading narrative about the game to players.

Not sure where you got that idea as every thing on the web site describing the game pretty much states that you don't know where your enemies may come from, all the advertising I've seen also backs that up. Not once have I seen anything supporting this "kumbuya" PR you claimed was being put out there. They have not once given out any misleading PR about the game and how it is played.

And if you think this is the most "predatory" style of gameplay, you obviously never played GTA V online or even Red Dead Redemption online (1, not 2).

@betsill said in How popular do you think sea of thieves is now?:

@acebead40319154 Rare's PR of the game completely contradicts the type of game they made. They made a game that revolves around the most predatory type of game-play I think i've seen in gaming, yet try to portray the game as some wonderland for all ages where everyone gets along and has magical adventures.

The most ardent PvP purists may not be considering the full spectrum of possible players, when they advocate for "harsh life lessons".

You can insist to consumers that harsh life lessons are good for them, and they'll be like "Yah, right. Thanks for the advice but no thanks, I'll play something else". in this day, we evolve by not requiring painful experiences to learn important lessons.

My son is enthralled with the idea of being a pirate. But he's scared of the megs & kraken and will hide when they show (below deck for Kraken , and crow's nest for Megs) and won't go onto voyage islands in the dark (even when we're playing in the daytime), and he's terrified of gunpowder skellies (me too, honestly).

For some potential players, a PvE mode would be enough. Then the choice to knowingly enter "dangerous PvP waters" when we feel either brave or confident.

@dlchief58 when I was thinking of the mention of PR I just thought of the fact RARE reached out to summit to stream with him and then everyone freaked out and from there RARE withdrew the invitation. Had to be PR. I get it and I do think RARE has utilized Summits approach in their updates while not supporting hostility. Anyways, I think the topic is how do you think the game is doing? Lol.

@dlchief58 When they talk about threats they talk about them in a vague almost non threatening way(ironically) lol If you watch dev talks, they rarely if ever talk about PvP when hyping the game. They talk about friends made, people working together, or people doing other non hostile stuff like pirate jeopardy and stuff like that. You can also tell this by how they talk about toxicity, and how they moderate their own forums. They treat us like children that need to be protected from any and all "mean" people. I don't think that's at all a coincidence, I think that's because they want to market this game heavily to children and people of all ages, which again, doesn't fit with the design of this game. When they do talk about PvP they portray killing and looting other players as this kind of friendly activity where everyone is cool with it and if you do kill people you need to be friendly about it or something... You notice how multiple bilge rat voyages required you to play with other crews yet there where NO bilge rat events where you had to fight other players? That's what i'm talking about. There have been numerous posts on the forum of parents coming on to complain that their child was attacked in the game. They thought this was a happy fun pirate game and that's because that's how rare portrays it with both the way they talk and the cartoon art-style...

I'm not a fan of rockstar so no, I haven't played those 2 games.

@khompewtur yeah, good post, and probably best argument for a pve zone. I am not in favor of it as I dont want to read the threads if that happens lol. Honestly, with sound up, this game can have an eerie element to it that not a lot of people talk about.

@betsill good points, that thing about the kids is interesting because I know people can be a little toxic with who they call squeakers and younger and I bet you a large player base for the game is kids. Certainly PR influence there and it's probably not always wrong but just a difficult theme in the game to moderate.

I think Shrouded Spoils is why SoT saw the boost in popularity recently.
It addressed alot of the key issues people had with the game.
So people can't use the excuse that it was "boring" anymore, so they have to see it for what it is:
A great game.

Now that I'm thinking about it: That's why the Mega Update is essentially a Shrouded Spoils 2.0.
Rare is trying to duplicate it's success, but way bigger this time.

While streamers like Summit surely have had some impact, I don't think they are the best indicator of game popularity. I don't believe most gamers watch the streams, and those who do don't necessarily pick their games based upon who's playing what. I've watched lots of streams for games I don't play and will likely never play. It's simple, mindless entertainment, like reality TV. I think the number of people who watch a stream then become regular, paying players of that game as a result is a relatively small percentage.

Also, it's worth pointing out that streamers don't necessarily play the way most people play. They are pretty much totally PvP-oriented because that's what gets them the subs. They're professional gamers--entertainers, really--and earn their living by providing a show. It still amazes me how little some of them actually know about Sea of Thieves, in spite of playing it for hundreds or even thousands of hours. Their gameplay does not necessarily give an accurate representation of what the game's about, especially in a game like Sea of Thieves that is so open. That's one of the pitfalls of streamers playing the game, as viewers think that's the way you're "supposed" to play. But it's not really what the developers had in mind, and it's not the way a lot of people want to play.

I don't have anything personally against Summit. I've actually come to enjoy watching his streams sometimes. I appreciate the fact that he's such a Sea of Thieves fan, even if he's not always promoting the game in a positive way. But even with 20-25 thousand viewers a day, that's not really a "game popularity" statistic. There are millions of gamers, and only a small percentage make purchase decisions based upon streamers.

I think Sea of Thieves is still immensely popular, and not because some streamers play the game. It's because the game offers an experience that is unique, immersive and compelling. At least, that's why I choose to play.

The game is still pretty popular, and will probably get alot more so when Arena update is here. I don't think Sea of Thieves will ever get to Fortnite/Apex status, but I think it has potential to secure itself as a popular niche game with a great community.

Summit and the other big name streamers playing the game was good for a quick boost in interest. But I don't think that was ever going to be sustainable. Their viewers watch for the high end competitive gameplay. Thats why summits Athena plunders and PvP clips are so popular. But this isn't that kind of game, and eventually viewers are gonna tune out. Sea of Thieves will always remain a "break/variety" game for most big streamers who genuinely enjoy it, but I don't see Summit or any other big streamer staying with SoT full time. Luckily there are plenty of awesome streamers who do stream this game full time, even if they don't get that crazy high viewership.

I see alot of similarities with Pokemon Go and this game as crazy as that sounds. When PoGo first came out, it was full of bugs, had little to no content, catching pidgeys and evolving them to boost XP was a boring, mind numbing grind with no end game whatsoever. Much like when this game first launched. But look at PoGo today and its like night and day, its one of my most played games now, so much new content and improvements. Had PoGo launched like this, it probably would have retained the popularity it had when it was launched. But it still has a dedicated community and is successful, and nobody even remembers the early days. I just hope 2 years from now Sea of Thieves is in the same place.

@shakes-mcqueen totally feel ya on that 4 to 6 week window... unfortunately the timing didnt work out right. Hopefully the new updates are game changers.

@dutchdeadschot yeah, honestly that is the best assessment I got as well. I still play every week and enjoy it quite a bit!

@acebead40319154 love this game and it is a good game so in short the game will never die

@genuine-heather
I totally agree with what you said about streamers not always being a good example of what a game is or even how to play a particular game.
Summit, for instance, knows only one tactic. While he's fantastic at it, it doesn't portray the full scope of what Sea of Thieves offers as a gaming experience.
After thousands of hours played, he was playing the newly created SPYRATE GAMES (performing certain tasks/actions gives each team points) and when he went onto an island he didn't know how to pick up a chicken.
ROFL!!!
I could sense his frustration and the energy he typically had was totally missing....until the end where he was back to 100% PvP mode....then he owned the show.

I think that SOT, like any really well designed sandbox game, doesn't just give you one task to accomplish and then shoehorns you into the stark repetition of said task.
Battle Royale has cornered the market on that style....and for those that love BR....it's a fun, fast-paced genre that gives that experience and only that experience.

SOT has multiple flavorings of so much more.
The developers know this and are actively pushing the envelope/s of each mechanic that SOT does and can do.