It’s been a month now since Sea of Thieves launched, and response has been quite mixed. Some enjoy the game for what it is, while others have been disappointed by the final product.

I personally very much enjoy the world developer Rare created, but did hope that some changes and more content were coming to the game to justify the $60 price tag. Now the first details on some of the post-launch content planned for Sea of Thieves have been revealed. You can find out all about them below.

Here’s executive producer Joe Neate talking about the post-launch plans from the game’s official website:

It’s been just over three weeks since we launched Sea of Thieves, and a lot has happened since then! We’ve been listening to you all, and we know you are keen to hear how we plan to grow Sea of Thieves. As we’ve always said, launch is just the start, and we are going to grow and evolve the game with feedback from our community. It feels like the right time to reveal how we’ll do this.

Sea of Thieves is a unique experience. As we look to add to the game, we will be very purposeful about the type of experience we want to create, and how we want this game to grow. At the same time, we have also been listening closely to everyone playing the game since launch and have been ensuring that this feeds into our content plans. When considering what to add to our plans, we always consider how we can make the most impact on the following:

• Bringing players together in interesting ways, encouraging different types of player encounters
• Enriching the world that players adventure in
• Giving players new ways to play
• Giving players a variety of goals and rewards
• Broadening the journey to Pirate Legend and beyond

Alongside this, what’s key for us is the rhythm and cadence we want to get into with Sea of Thieves. Our focus for April is to continue addressing the top feedback points, but as we move into May, our focus will shift to new content.

Our first content update, The Hungering Deep, will release in May and bring with it a new AI threat to the world. Crews will have to work together to discover and defeat this threat as part of a unique event. We will also be introducing a number of new mechanics to assist players on this adventure, and there will be unique rewards that players can earn as part of this event. Beyond this, we will begin our weekly events programme during May, where we introduce new mechanics and give players fun new ways to play with weekly events and rewards.

In the summer months, we’ll debut two more content updates with Cursed Sails, which will include a new ship type, and Forsaken Shores, which will introduce players to a perilous new part of the world to explore. Similarly to The Hungering Deep, both of these updates will also include new gameplay mechanics for players, new AI threats to challenge and new unique rewards to claim.

As we’ve always said, we never wanted to do anything to separate our players, so we’re pleased to confirm that all content updates will be available to all our players, at no additional cost.

With Sea of Thieves being a game that grows and evolves, we’ll be listening to you, our community, throughout. As such, we’ll always be looking at whether our current plans are meeting your needs. Based on feedback since launch, we have changed the priorities for both Pets and Ship Captaincy which we had previously announced as things we would look to add in the few months after launch. These are on the back burner for now whilst we add to the game in other areas. Expect our plans to continue to be fluid, but always with the goals listed above as our guiding principles.

We are hugely excited to be beginning this phase of Sea of Thieves, and seeing where the adventure takes us.

Cheers,

– Joe Neate, Executive Producer

The most important thing in all of that, is that the new content will be free for all players. As a $60 online multiplayer game with no single-player campaign, it was crucial that post-launch content not cost even more coin to players. Wanting to keep all players on an even playing field with the same things to experience is a smart strategy, especially if they want to win back some of those who were expecting more out of the game at launch.

For those like myself who play the game solo, the “Hungering Deep” update mentioned above sounds like it’s more for crews. Still, it’s good to see them adding new content. We can only hope that this will continue consistently until Sea of Thieves becomes what it has the potential to be.

If interested, the video below is Neate and design director Mike Chapman discussing the post-launch content plans.

Video

If launch was the beginning, what else is coming soon to Sea of Thieves? What new challenges can you expect to face? Get up to speed on content plans from now through to summer (and beyond!) with Design Director Mike and Executive Producer Joe.

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