Sea of Thieves First Look

Rare's first new IP for the Xbox One was announced at E3 2015. Join us as we take a first look at the game!

Pirates have fascinated people for years. There was a time when you couldn’t turn on the TV or check online without seeing pirates vs. ninjas or something similar. From TV shows like Black Sails to massive box office hits such as Pirates of the Caribbean, there’s just something people love about the thieves of the high seas. Now, Rare and Microsoft have teamed up to deliver what could be the penultimate pirate adventure for the Xbox One and Windows 10 platforms.

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Sea of Thieves was first announced at E3 2015. While some were hoping for a remake or sequel to any of Rare’s classic titles, everyone was surprised by the announcement of the new intellectual property, and the fact that it’s currently slated to be a massively multiplayer online adventure (MMO). There isn’t a lot known about the newly announced title, let’s comb over the details we do have to get a better idea of how the game will shape up.

We know that Sea of Thieves is fairly early in production and will not be shown at Gamescom in Germany next month. In addition, while the original announcement came with a Holiday 2016 release window, Microsoft has confirmed that there is no official release date yet. This is actually a good sign because it likely means Microsoft is more than willing to give Rare the time it needs to polish the title properly before it hits retail shelves. Too often these days companies release MMO titles as what amounts to an extended beta, only to patch the game to completion in the months that follow the release. From the way things are shaping up, Sea of Thieves should hopefully launch in a much more refined state.

The announcement trailer for Sea of Thieves was displayed in first-person. While it doesn’t appear as though the game will be entirely first-person, that will be a focus when you’ve moving around on land. You can meet up with friends and build up your pirate crew, then set sail to pillage and plunder islands, towns and other vessels on the high seas.

When we think about Sea of Thieves, the first thing that comes to mind is an MMO based on the mega popular One Piece anime and manga. With the anime reaching over 700 episodes in Japan with no sign of things slowing down anytime soon, it’s not surprising that Sea of Thieves has some similar notions. In One Piece, the main character Luffy goes around to find powerful crew members to strengthen his claim to one day become the Pirate King. While becoming the Pirate King probably doesn’t factor into Sea of Thieves, collecting a strong crew seems integral to your success in the game.

MMO titles these days tend to offer plenty of things to do without other players, but there’s still a heavy focus on the multiplayer aspects of such titles. We fully expect to be able to build and upgrade our own pirate ships so that our crew can set sail in custom vessels designed and outfitting to our personal liking. Hidden riches were also mentioned by Rare, which means there will undoubtedly be loot to find and with that, enemies to slaughter.

If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, you probably have a good idea of how the naval combat will work. That’s likely to be the basis on the player vs. player battles. While there’s sure to be some sword fighting thrown in, ship to ship battles are a must, especially considering how much emphasis there was on searching the high seas.

With Sea of Thieves missing Gamescom and not yet having a firm release date, it’s difficult to determine when we’ll have more information on the highly anticipated title. However, keep a close eye on Prima Games as we bring you more up to date information as it becomes available.


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Author
Bryan Dawson
Bryan Dawson has an extensive background in the gaming industry, having worked as a journalist for various publications for nearly 20 years and participating in a multitude of competitive fighting game events. He has authored over a dozen strategy guides for Prima Games, worked as a consultant on numerous gaming-related TV and web shows and was the Operations Manager for the fighting game division of the IGN Pro League.