Sea Of Thieves Announces PC And Xbox One Cross-Play

The addition of harpoon guns brings some exciting possibilities for underwater combat and maneuvering: it's a great shark deterrent (as it's likely gunpowder-based weapons won't be usable under water post-beta), Seaofthievesfans.Com and also brings the possibility that pirates will be able to attach themselves to opposing ships via the harpoons and potentially sneak up the sides. Of course, that's not the only new weapon to watch out for. The boarding axe, heavy sword, rapier, flintlock pistol, and blunderbuss will also be featured in the full version of Sea of Thiev


"One of the things we’re very aware of is the need for the balancing to be right. After running some recent tests, we found that PC players were 4.5% more efficient at killing skeletons than Xbox players, and this feels close enough that it’s something we’ll continue to monitor. However, PvP between platforms, or more importantly device input, is the big focus point for us as a Design team, and already we’ve been working closely with the Game Experience team to change the way the guns work to be better balanced for cross play. We’ve put in a bunch of telemetry around this, and with the change to guns it’s made them feel tonally so much more fitting, as previously they felt more like laser weapons than ancient plundered-and-pillaged gunpowder-driven blunderbuss


While the closed beta only features sharks and skeletons as AI-controlled enemies, the datamine reveals a wider variety of enemies and creatures, some of which have already been featured in trailers for the game . The data implies that the full game will feature bats, chickens, fish, parrots, pigs, seagulls, sharks, and snakes. It's not currently known if parrots will be tamable, allowing pirates to mount a feathered companion on their shoulders as they guzzle down some grog. The datamine also reveals that mermaids will not always be friendly like they are in the beta, and that the Kraken will wrap its tentacles around the ship in a manner which will likely require the crew to work together quickly in order to surv


This isn't the first time that Rare has talked about cross-play for Sea of Thieves , however. Earlier this year, when Rare first activated the closed alpha on PC, the team decided to try out cross-play just to see how it felt. Executive Producer Joe Neate called the experience "magical," explaining that it led him to question why any game would split player bases. But questions about balance and fairness prevented Rare from making it official straight away, however the more the studio considered cross-play, the more it realized there was no good reason not to include


A recent datamine of the game's files uncovered lots more Sea of Thieves content, including new enemies and animals such as parrots, pigs, and seagulls. The leak also pointed to lots of character and ship customization , from tattoos and eyepatches to a variety of ship hulls. With the game's microtransactions still a few months away, Rare is still working on the finer details but these datamined options do sound like the sort of cosmetic items that could be unlocked via microtransacti


Neate is not the first developer to offer this explanation, with former Uncharted developer Amy Hennig also saying that loot boxes and microtransactions are a result of rising game development costs . This means that players can likely expect more microtransactions in games going forward, but many will be hoping that they follow Sea of Thieves ' lead and only offer cosmetic unlo


The Sea of Thieves closed beta has only been active for a handful of days, but that hasn't stopped hungry gamers from turning over every rock (in-game or otherwise) in the quest to uncover as much about the game as possible. The upcoming multiplayer seafaring experience will see pirates voyaging from island to island in search of treasure, contracts, and glory, but the closed beta only offers a sample-sized portion of the full picture. Now, Sea of Thieves fans have datamined the closed beta in order to get a better glimpse of what is to c


Interestingly, Rare didn't have anything else to say about how Sea of Thieves would be monetised after its launch next year. All Mayles could offer in that regard was a broad design philosophy that hints towards a content release plan similar to that of Destiny or other long-term investments like The Divisi

The reveal of Rare Replay and the teaser for Sea of Thieves was a marketing poly to get gamers excited to play Rare games again, even though the game will not be anywhere near the same quality we have come to expect from "old" Rare titles during their run with Nintendo. This isn’t to say the game has no chance, but the point is that "old" Rare is officially dead and this new incarnation is building up hype off of titles they had no affiliation with.


There are also references to more instruments beyond the hurdy-gurdy and accordion, which have become massive hits among players. Each of the two existing instruments has a lead and backing track (along with their drunk variants), but a fifth track for drums also appears to be on the cards. Many players have also wished for larger galleons allowing for crews of 5 or 6, but the datamine has revealed no fruits in that regard – just more pomegrana