Developer Rare has announced that Sea of Thieves will be getting an anti-cheat system in place with a mid-season update planned for release next week. During its recent Sea of Thieves News video, the studio revealed that the game will be making use of Epic’s Easy Anti-Cheat, which is also used by other major online games like Fortnite and Apex Legends.
Along with the addition of anti-cheat, the studio has also revealed that the update will now allow Sea of Thieves players to play the game’s Safer Seas mode without needing an online subscription. For context, since Sea of Thieves is an online-only game, playing the title on consoles requires a subscription to Xbox Game Pass. This will no longer be the case for the Safer Seas mode after the update.
Safer Seas is a way for Sea of Thieves players to essentially disable the game’s multiplayer trappings. Since there’s often the chance of being ambushed by other pirate crews in the open seas, Safer Seas allows players to essentially have the whole map to themselves, allowing them to experience the various adventures and other content Sea of Thieves offer, at the cost of fewer rewards.
The upcoming PS5 version of Sea of Thieves will also allow players to play the Safer Seas mode without needing a subscription to PlayStation Plus. Playing on the game’s regular servers, however, will still require the appropriate subscription on consoles.