When Sea of Thieves first came on the market, not everyone was sure what to make of it. Some fans were immediately enamored, perfectly content with sailing the open seas and finding their own adventures, while others felt that Sea of Thieves just didn't have enough content to make the game feel meaningful. At the time, Sea of Thieves' future looked uncertain, but everything is different now. Rare still hasn't stopped releasing update after update for Sea of Thieves adding new quests and storylines for players to sink their teeth into and establishing a vision for the pirate game's longevity that inspires optimism in its fans.
Rare isn't just putting its own content into Sea of Thieves, though. Lately it keeps revealing major crossovers that drive home the point that the game truly is a success. For instance, earlier in 2021, Sea of Thieves fans learned about a collaboration between Disney and Rare to make a storyline in which players meet and team up with Captain Jack Sparrow from the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. What's more, Rare recently revealed a set of ship cosmetics inspired by the Borderlands franchise, branching out into yet another major IP. Sea of Thieves' impressive collaborations not only suggest that the game is doing well, but that it won't go away anytime soon.
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Sea of Thieves Remains Afloat
Sea of Thieves is a live-service game, which means it has to adapt to the genre's unceasing need to expand and change. Any studio that develops a live-service game takes a major gamble; the studio has to be prepared to support its own game for years, adding new content to keep fans entertained. Inevitably, many live service games —- no matter who developed them — start to taper off as fans are drawn to newer games, or simply lose interest in the original title. Sea of Thieves was definitely at risk of letting fans slip away when it made a mixed first impression on players. From then on, it was up to Rare to make the player base stay.
Luckily for Rare, its efforts have definitely succeeded. Rare has found all kinds of ways to make Sea of Thieves a constantly engaging game, from new types of sea creatures for players to encounter, to NPC skeleton pirate ships that might challenge players to naval battles. The game has been expanded in just about every department, and the Sea of Thieves fanbase is pretty pleased about it. Rare's collaborations with Pirates of the Caribbean and Borderlands are just the next step up for Sea of Thieves, reinforcing its staying power as a live service game and opening doors to all kinds of other exciting team-ups.
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Sea of Thieves' Journey is Just Beginning
Rare deserves commendation for everything that it has accomplished with Sea of Thieves thus far. The game's concept was solid from the start — the detailed sailing mechanics and the free-roam exploration immediately made Sea of Thieves a pirate game like no other. Even so, Rare could've made only modest changes to the game, giving players simple things that they wanted rather than pushing Sea of Thieves' boundaries. Rare chose to take risks by introducing a wide range of storylines to Sea of Thieves, and in doing so, Rare has vastly extended the game's longevity.
Hopefully Rare remains this supportive of Sea of Thieves for years to come. Its major collaborations suggest that there's many other Fortnite-style crossovers to come. For instance, now that Rare and Disney have a working relationship, Sea of Thieves could easily get some Treasure Planet cosmetics, adding sci-fi flair to player characters and ships. Rare has to remain faithful to Sea of Thieves in order for the game to succeed. It's very easy for a live-service game to sink without enthusiastic support from a developer, so it's great to see Rare tending to Sea of Thieves so carefully.
Sea of Thieves is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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