In a Sea of Thieves developer update video for December 2nd, Executive Producer Joe Neate and Creative Director Mike Chapman talked about future plans for the three year old game.
Creative Director Mike Chapman announced Sea of Thieves is moving to a Battle Pass model with Seasons; Season 1 starts in January, lasting 3 months. Not only are there hundreds of new items and rewards to work toward, there is a progression system for the various activities on the high seas.
“Each season begins with a new piece of content. A new experience or way to play each season.” says Chapman. He continued by discussing the new progression system, being “the biggest change since launch.” The progression system is centered around renown, with a player being able to earn one hundred through trials as well as every day pirate things. The developers are hoping this change will allow players to play for shorter amounts of time while still feeling a tangible progression without having to finish an entire mission.
Chapman also announced the premium tier Plunder Pass, with “new live events containing new rewards and new goals to strive for.” The first Season has the adventurer playing detective, trying to piece together clues to find a lost shipwreck.
Joe Neate touched on the game’s consistent upward trend in the past year and throughout Sea of Thieves tenure. He mentioned how much the team and community has been through not only in the last year especially, but throughout the three years the game has been out.
Neate discussed how the community has been getting along with various updates this year and where it would like to focus it’s development time in the future. “Our focus is on adventure , which is very much the beating heart of the game. It’s where we started. It’s what’s kind of always been so unique and where we see the most stories in Sea of Thieves . . . Over 97% of our playtime is spent in adventure” says Neate.
He went on to say the team is using their time and energy to focus on what they think makes Sea of Thieves special, so they are unable to improve on the Arena mode for some time. Though there is a dedicated fan base to the competitive mode, the developers are getting much more feedback about adventuring and where players are spending most of their time.
Sea of Thieves next update is set to arrive December 9 for Xbox One, Xbox One X/S and PC, with Season 1 starting in January.
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