Sea of Thieves Includes 540p Mode With 15 FPS Frame Rate

Rare’s Sea of Thieves will be coming to Xbox One and PC next year and along with 4K resolutions and 60 FPS, even systems with less powerful specifications will be able to play it. That’s because Rare is looking to optimize the game to be as playable as possible at lower settings.

Speaking to PC Gamer, executive producer Joe Neat said that the developer was attempting to go as “low as possible”. “We have an idea of what the minimum specs are but aren’t quite ready to reveal them. We’ve actually been inviting people below our current plan for minimum specs into the technical alpha so we can test a number things on the performance side. This game looks so great regardless of the device you’re playing on. Of course it’s gonna look great in 4K, 60fps but it also looks great at minimum spec because the art style is purposefully timeless.”

Ted Timmins, who’s the design lead for PC, also added that there would be a 540p mode and frame rate lock to play the game in 15 frames per second. Why would they possibly have an option for this? Because some members of the community said they were fine with it.

“When we were talking to the community some people were like: I’m actually happy playing 15 frames per second. We were like: that’s actually really cool, we should support that. And to them go to them and say, oh, we’ve added that mode for you — it’s below our Rare certified min spec, but if you’re enjoying the game, why should we as developers knock you for that?”

Which isn’t a bad approach, honestly. How many games have we seen over the past several years which fail to run properly even on consoles, let-alone at the recommended specifications for PC? It’s a good step for Sea of Thieves and, in terms of multiplayer outreach, will only open up the game further for players.

Sea of Thieves has been receiving more gameplay over the past few months showcasing the ship combat, exploration (particularly of dark caves full of enemies and loot) and social activities. The game is currently slated to release in 2018 for Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs with support for Xbox One X.