Sea of Thieves may not have had the most positive launch in terms of critical reception, but credit has to be given to Rare for how they’ve handled themselves and their game since. With each new content update they’ve tried to improve on the game’s more lacklustre areas, and there’s a lot more to come still.
Expansions The Hungering Deep and Cursed Sails have added a significant amount of content as it is, with Forsaken Shores in the pipeline for a September launch- and beyond that, they have three more content updates planned for 2018. And reception from the community has been appropriately positive since then. The game had a successful launch, all said and done, and since then, it’s crossed 5 million players.
Rare, however, are not going to rest on their laurels. Speaking with GamesIndustry, design director Mike Chapman said that Rare now has more people working on Sea of Thieves than ever before, echoing similar statements Rare have made in the past, and that the developer wants to “double down” on the game’s success with continued post-launch support. “We actually have more people working on the game now than we did before launch,” Chapman said. “We’re doubling down on this massive success. We want to keep expanding this world – it’s pirate fantasy so there’s a million and one ideas we can explore.”
That’s frankly an excellent attitude to have. As I’ve mentioned already, the support Sea of Thieves has received from Rare since its launch has greatly benefited what was, at launch, an underwhelming game. If Rare’s words are to be believed, they’re going to continue in that vein for some time to come.
