Sea of Thieves has launched into some rough water

It hasn’t been very smooth sailing for Microsoft’s big exclusive pirate game, Sea of Thieves. Launching on the 20th of March, the game has managed to get a lot of attention, although not all of it positive.

Since launch the game has raised some concerns amongst its player base, so much so that developer Rare has already had to comment and reassure players of the game’s future. Most of the concerns surrounding the game come from a straight up lack of content, with many players upset that there is very little to do within the game. Cosmetic items are also quite limited which has given some players little incentive to continue playing as there is nothing new to work towards. Rare responded to these concerns in an interview with IGN. Sea of Thieves Executive Producer Joe Neate said the following:

“Sea of Thieves is designed from the ground up to be a game that grows and evolves, and we will release new cosmetic options ongoing as part of that, alongside new mechanics and ways to play. Our focus for launch is on delivering a great initial experience, and as we move beyond launch we will be assessing and reacting to player feedback across all areas of the game. We have worked with our community throughout the development of Sea of Thieves, and that will continue in exactly the same manner beyond launch.”

I think it’s obvious that Sea of Thieves is intended to be an ongoing product. The kind of game whose development will never really be complete as long as there are still players actively engaged. Although that isn’t much consolation for some gamers who paid full price for a game that they feel isn’t feature complete and is lacking in content. It is worth mentioning that Sea of Thieves is available as a part of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass program and is therefore available to play at a much lower price point as part of an ongoing subscription.

The other big issue impacting Sea of Thieves is a whole bunch of trouble surrounding server connection when the game first launched. In fact, the connection issues got so bad that the studio had to suspend new players from joining in on the fun.

In order to resolve the issues players are seeing with the servers, we will be temporarily suspending new players joining the game. We’ll get everyone back in and playing as quickly as we can!

— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) March 20, 2018

A lot of the server connection issues are slowly being resolved and Rare also decided to tackle this issue head on with a developer update video where they discuss the ins and outs of the problem and their plan for a resolution.

All in all it hasn’t been the smoothest launch for a video game, although that hasn’t stopped over 1 million would-be pirates from joining in on the rum-drinking action. What has your experience been like with Sea of Thieves?