Sea of Thieves devs discuss "surreal" PS5 launch and 2024's "year of the sandbox"
And why it won't flag PS5 owners by their console on Xbox.
Sea of Thieves, you might have heard, is heading to PlayStation 5 next month. It's a significant moment for all sorts of reasons – it's perhaps the biggest of the four Microsoft first-party titles recently confirmed for Sony's console, and it's also the first time developer Rare has released a PlayStation title in its nearly 40-year history – but it's also an opportunity for a whole new group of players to experience (and I say this as a huge Sea of Thieves fan) a wonderful, genuinely unique game. And with the multiplayer pirate adventure's 30th April launch on PS5 looming, I spoke to creative director Mike Chapman and executive producer Joe Neate about this latest milestone, the state of the game, and the team's big sandbox focus for 2024.
"We've had [the PlayStation 5 version] running really since late last year," Neate explains of Sea of Thieves' journey to a new console. "We've been testing internally and we're getting into the 'take home' stage, where we're playing at home with our little hands on the [PlayStation] controllers, and kind of going, 'This is insane!'". But how did the pair react when they first learned a PlayStation version was happening? "I think it's such a surreal moment we have this opportunity," Chapman responds. "Sea of Thieves at its core is about taking barriers away, allowing crews of would-be pirates to sail together on the waves, to share ships, and the fact we're now adding one more platform so people can create their ideal crew and enjoy the game, it's monumental, absolutely monumental - if you'd told me this back in 2018, I don't think I would have believed you. It's amazing."
"And having this new influx of players," Neate adds, "this new influx of feedback and perspective, for the strength and health of Sea of Thieves as an ongoing, evolving game, it's just a great moment… It's a really good time for Sea of Thieves."
And, as Neate explains it, the knowledge a whole bunch of new players would soon have the opportunity to sail the Sea of Thieves for the first time has helped shape Rare's development direction over the last year. "You've probably looked at the things we've been doing, things like Safer Seas or Season 11, [and] now with the awareness that we're coming into this new platform, I think you'll have seen that we've definitely had that thought of, 'Look, we're going to a place where there's going to be an influx of new people, what better time is there for us to actually make sure Sea of Thieves is in the best place possible for new players?'"
It's a focus that's capped a long stretch of foundational updates for the almost six-year-old pirate adventure – bringing the likes of on-demand PvP, co-op-focused Guild progression, private servers, and a radical structural overhaul that's dramatically tightened the game's previously significant time demands – and the results, speaking from the perspective of a long-time player, have been hugely transformative. In a lot of ways, the current Season 11 feels like Sea of Thieves 2.0, and when I put this to Neate and Chapman they agree.
"I think part of making an evolving game that we're now six years into, [there's a bit of a] blind spot - when you've got an existing community, you worry less about discoverability. Even though we'd put such a wealth of content into the game, it's not at your fingertips; the economy got left behind; we had a lot of voyages that get you out on the waves and emergent gameplay that we hadn't touched since 2018… So Season 11 was kind of an end of an era for Sea of Thieves and a new start, by pushing all that up to the surface again. So we really feel we've built a strong foundation to then keep building on for years to come."
The downside to all this systemic tinkering is that it's taken time for Rare's longer-term vision to snap into focus for players, and there's been increasing unrest among the community amid concerns the sandbox core of Sea of Thieves has suffered through neglect. It's a sentiment Neate and Chapman are all too aware of, and one the studio is determined to address in 2024.
"Getting PS5 up and running… and using that to [ensure what we've built] is approachable for the widest amount of players," explains Chapman, "that's been deliberate, because we're thinking of the long term future of Sea of Thieves. But in our minds, Season 11 very much completes that work. We've expanded the boundaries of the world, now it's about enriching that new foundational experience. And this is the year of the sandbox, going after the stuff our core community and arguably new players will want to see: new sandbox experiences, new tools that really highlight what's unique about our shared-world gameplay, new weapons - we haven't [had] any new weapons since 2018 – and just high-impact sandbox updates. That's the theme this year." As Neate puts it, 2024 is "possibly the most classic Sea of Thieves year yet".
While Rare isn't quite ready to publicly talk specifics, the studio has confirmed it'll be giving players a big old tease of the year ahead – showcasing elements from not just Season 12, but 13 and 14 – as part of Sea of Thieves' sixth anniversary celebrations on 20th March. Will the next season, which coincides with the game's PS5 launch on 30th April, serve as a statement of intent for Rare's new sandbox focus, I ask? "I think so," Chapman replies. "I think Season 12 is very much a sandbox update. There's some tools in there that will lead to some of the funniest moments that players will have ever seen in the game. So I would say yes."
One thing that definitely won't be returning, however, are Sea of Thieves' monthly story driven Adventures, which spluttered out last June with one final instalment. And despite Rare teasing their eventual return when we spoke last year, that's now no longer happening. "I think it was wonderful to move our storyline forwards," Chapman explains of the decision, "but narrative was very much leading those experiences, and the gameplay was feeling kind of second fiddle to it… So our new plan is to weave that narrative into the seasons themselves, like we did in the earlier days, to actually make it part and parcel of the gameplay. I think we're quite good at weaving that." As part of that adjustment, players can expect the long-teased return of Sea of Thieves' Big Bad, Captain Flameheart, in a future season, and Neate says the team is looking at regular new gameplay-focused events "on an ongoing basis in between seasons" that are about "really trying to drive interesting behaviour and fun and buzz in the sandbox itself." On this, Chapman adds, "One of the things Season 11's new quest table gives us is you don't need to know the event is active, it's going to be showcased through that table. So doing things that maybe changes the feel of the sandbox for the weekend, that's much easier to do now."
And beyond the new stuff, Neate and Chapman are keen to stress that, after a sometimes wobbly 2023, game health will be an absolute priority for 2024. "I think some of the community sentiment around things like bugs, around performance, hitching, hit registration, is absolutely fair. So when we think of this year, we're really trying to hit as much as we can there… we want the sandbox to feel refreshed on a regular basis, and we want to really get the health of the core experience back to that baseline [and build from there]. Historically, we've tried to spread that load across different parts of the team while still delivering new stuff, and sometimes it can get deprioritised. And so we're actually forming an internal team specifically around game health to make sure it never gets deprioritised in a way that, speaking completely honestly, it has in the past. And we want to be open with our community on that front, because we get it, we hear it."
As we chat, our conversation touches on the recent arrival of a certain other pirate game and whether it's impacted Rare's thinking. "I wish the Skull and Bones team the best of luck as an evolving game, as a live service," Neate says, "it's a very exciting space to move into. But I don't think there are any real true comparisons to be drawn to be honest. We feel confident we exist in our own space, regardless of any title." And that's a sentiment Chapman shares: "I think honestly… even within the space of what kind of pirate game is it, their depiction of the pirate life, the tone, is completely different, more realistic, and it's less based on treating the game like a virtual chat room and just messing about with your mates… so they are very different games."
With time drawing short, we return to PlayStation for some final thoughts – and in case you were wondering, no, Rare won't be flagging PS5 users in-game to encourage all-out console rivalry warfare. "I think what we're all about," Neate explains, "is trying to create positive social stories, positive social bonds. And that's definitely the message that we want to kind of get across." Chapman's final pitch to PS5 owners, meanwhile, is also one of cross-platform camaraderie: "It's the kind of pirate game you dreamt about as a kid playing great games in the playground. Come and join us, come and set sail in our community and you will find your crew."
Before wrapping up, though, I had to ask about other platforms. But with no news forthcoming in regard to the future of Sea of Thieves, I wondered about going in the opposite direction. If you could put Sea of Thieves on any classic console, what would it be? "I mean, I'm going to say my favourite console of all time," Chapman answers immediately. "I'd love to see the Nintendo 64 version of Sea of Thieves, with the Rumble Pak in and split-screen - you can see the TV ads now! And you're flicking through Official Nintendo Magazine, and there's four people wearing pirate hats around a TV and a little gold N64!". As for Neate, "I just want to do fishing on the Wii, firing a harpoon on the Wii, sword fighting on the Wii, come on! I'd live the pirate life!".
Back in reality though, Sea of Thieves' next destination – with its six years of updates, including 2021's swashbuckling Pirates of the Caribbean adventure and last year's superb Monkey Island campaign – is PS5 on 30th April. Pre-orders, if you're into that kind of thing, are open now.