Developer Rare already has a plan for the next five years' worth of new content for Sea of Thieves. The game turned five on March 20, and the studio is already thinking about where it will be when Sea of Thieves hits ten years old.
Rare and publisher Microsoft Studios released Sea of Thieves on PC and Xbox One in 2018 and as a launch title for the Xbox Series X/S when the consoles released in 2020. The multiplayer action-adventure game casts players as pirates in a shared open-world ocean environment. Players can complete missions for one of the game's three trading companies, explore islands in search of resources, or battle rival players on the high seas. Unfortunately, the game saw a mediocre critical reception due to its lack of content at launch. Still, it was nonetheless commercially successful, and Rare continues to expand upon it through multiple years of content updates.
Microsoft and Rare are celebrating five years of Sea of Thieves, but the UK-based studio is not resting on its laurels. A recent Xbox Wire article offered an inside look into Sea of Thieves development, describing the process that resulted in the game many players enjoy today. However, the report also revealed that Rare is not done with their open-world multiplayer action game, with staff members recently sitting down to plot out the next five years of Sea of Thieves updates.
While this might seem like a lot of planning ahead, it's not unprecedented, with the article describing how Rare went through a similar process planning out the first five years of Sea of Thieves post-release content. Of course, not all of those ideas made it into the final product, and Rare's current plans seem to be fairly broad, so it might not be fair to describe Rare as having a roadmap. Still, the studio offered some insight into what Rare hopes to pursue in the next five years of Sea of Thieves content.
One idea floating around the office is to introduce smuggling mechanics, with other suggestions including a reward system for players who protect others from griefers. The developers are also interested in a mechanic to let players take screenshots in the form of in-game paintings. The latter was actually a concept Rare prototyped years before Seas of Thieves' release but never made it into the game.
Rare is also quite confident that the studio's broad but clear vision for Sea of Thieves means it will never run out of ideas for new content. "I think ten years of Sea of Thieves will feel like a long time," said Creative Director Mike Chapman, "but also, we'll blink and be there. And I still think we'll have unfinished business when we get to that point."
Sea of Thieves is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Xbox Wire