News, updates and info from the Sea of Thieves.

Rare invited press to play the Anniversary Update [roundup]

Links to all the best reading from this weeks Anniversary Update coverage. Roundups
Last week Rare hosted press for a preview look at the Anniversary Update – the highly anticipated free update for Sea of Thieves coming April 30, 2019. The embargo lifted earlier today, so following is a round-up of all the press so far. There’s a huge amount of info nestled in these pieces, so we’ll have an ultra-detailed summary of everything covered in these press pieces a little later in the week. 🚨 Be aware that there are spoilers in these previews. If you want to go into the update fresh-faced and wide-eyed, you may want to turn back now. 🚨…

6 Minutes of Sea of Thieves Arena PvP Gameplay

An Anniversary Update gameplay preview via IGN. Gameplay Previews
Rare have provide press with short videos previewing the gameplay in the Anniversary Update. Note, this obviously intended as b-roll footage to be used with other content, but IGN has posted the footage in full. It doesn’t contain music or any voiceover or chat. Come and see the high-speed piracy of Arena, Sea of Thieves’ new competitive mode.

6 Minutes of Sea of Thieves Tall Tales: Shores of Gold Gameplay

An Anniversary Update gameplay preview via IGN. Gameplay Previews
Rare have provide press with short videos previewing the gameplay in the Anniversary Update. Note, this obviously intended as b-roll footage to be used with other content, but IGN has posted the footage in full. It doesn’t contain music or any voiceover or chat. 🚨 Contains spoilers! 🚨 Get a little look at the first episode of the new Sea of Thieves Tall Tales story campaign, Shores of Gold.

7 Minutes of Sea of Thieves Cooking and Fishing Gameplay

An Anniversary Update gameplay preview via IGN. Gameplay Previews
Rare have provide press with short videos previewing the gameplay in the Anniversary Update. Note, this obviously intended as b-roll footage to be used with other content, but IGN has posted the footage in full. It doesn’t contain music or any voiceover or chat. The Sea of Thieves is about to get a few more residents – come and see what it’s like to hook up and fry the new denizens of the deep.

The Story Continues – Joe Neate at EGX (video)

Joe talks Tall Tales, the Anniversary Update, and more. Talks & Panels
Sea of Thieves executive producer, Joe Neate, was at EGX Rezzed this weekend for a chat. The talk was titled The Story Continues, with a focus on Tall Tales. However, the chat was wide-ranging and covered lore, development, the community, and a couple of teases too. As always, we recommend watching the whole thing – but for those who just don’t have time, here’s a time-stamped summary of every question. The Hungering Deep (3:02) Joe mentioned they “fudged together” the shared world narrative of The Hungering Deep using “the tools that were available to us”. But the success of that…

The Arena will be playable at TwitchCon

Not an Insider? Not a problem. News
Of all the additions coming to the Anniversary Update, The Arena is the one we’ve known about the longest. However, we’ve received very little new information since the new game mode was announced at XO18. But it looks like that’s about to change. We know that media will be visiting Rare this week to play The Anniversary update – and we expect to see write-ups about those visits in mid-April. Additionally, the Sea of Thieves dev team will be streaming The Arena on April 10th, where the team will “share more details, insights and glimpses from behind the scenes”. Following…

Developer Update (video)

Pets are delayed. Perhaps they’re being spayed? Dev Update Videos
Notes of interest from this week’s Dev Update: Pets While the original plan was for pets to come into the game with the Anniversary Update, testing with Insiders and internally have shown they’re not at a quality level Rare would like. The devs want pets to really fit the world and feel alive, so they’ll take some more time to get them right. Tall Tales The devs will have a live stream dedicated to covering Tall Tales on April 23rd, along with a Tall Tales trailer. Tall Tales brings narrative, story and quests into the shared world of the game….

Year One in Review (video)

A full overview of the first year… and a bit… of Sea of Thieves. Trailer and Announcement Videos
On the heel on the one year anniversary of Sea of Thieves, Rare have released their offical Year One in Review video! Video Manager, Jon McFarlane, walks us through every update, event and adventure available to all the pirates on the seas since launch. Watch the video above for a wonderful stroll down memory lane. More: What’s changed since you last played Sea of Thieves Everything we know about the Mega Update The official Anniversary Trailer See all the updates in a big, long list Follow Sea of News on Twitter to stay up to date with all the news…

Ship speeds revealed, for real

If you’ve ever wondered which ships are fastest in which sail configuration, wonder no longer. Community
There is a lot of accepted wisdom when it comes to sailing in Sea of Thieves. Not long after launch, pirates discovered that when a sloop’s sails are directly squared against the wind, the ship travels faster than with the sails angled to either side. Even now, that is still occasionally disputed in the community. And the Brigantine is faster than the galleon. Or is it? YouTuber kiwhen recently decided to find out the facts of the situation with as much accuracy as possible. The result is a fascinating look at the physics of the game. To ascertain speed, you…

We’ll have to wait a little longer for Pets

They’re not quite ready for prime time. News
Eagle eyed observers would have noticed that Pets were conspicuously absent from the Anniversary Update trailer on Wednesday. At the time, I postulated that, since the mega update was a free update, pets (which will cost real money) were intentionally omitted to avoid confusion. Nope. Executive Producer, Joe Neate, confirmed on Twitter that pets aren’t quite where Rare would like them to be, so they’re taking the time to ensure they get it right. We’re not quite happy with where Pets are at yet. Been testing them with Insiders, taken feedback, had internal reviews, and not confident they’d meet our…

Sea of Thieves announces major “Anniversary Update”

The update will arrive on April 30th. News
The team from Sea of Thieves announced the details of their “mega update” today – now officially called the Anniversary Update. As well as The Arena (most of the details of which we’ve know since it was announced) the video, announcement and promo page give us some more details about things we know, and tip us off to some new things. Tall Tales – Shores of Gold introduces a new epic storyline to the world of Sea of Thieves, delving deeper into the lore of our favourite pirate paradise. Follow a series of narrative adventures surrounding existing and all-new characters, taking you…

Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update Trailer

Let’s break it down! Trailer and Announcement Videos
It’s finally here! And Rare have now confirmed that the Anniversary Update (RIP, mega update) will arrive on April 30th. Have you watched it yet? Click above to give it another watch then let’s get into a breakdown below. FISHING CONFIRMED! And is there something cooking in that pot? Here we see this chest opening. What’s inside? The pirate on the left is holding his compass, how did they find the chest? A lot of new cosmetics on display here. We get our first look at harpoons (we were right). Fishing again (hooray!). And the woman pirate on deck has…

Release Notes – 1.4.5

Happy Birthday, Sea of Thieves! Minor Releases
Come and join us as we celebrate Sea of Thieves’ first anniversary with a treasure trove of gifts for you all! While the full-sized Anniversary Update is coming a little further down the line, today’s build brings some special time-limited items to mark one year since launch. Whether you’ve been sailing with us since day one or since yesterday, there’s something special here to help you enjoy the festivities. [Link] MERCENARY VOYAGES Reaper’s Run of Shipwreck Bay – Duke offers another treacherous Reaper’s Run Voyage costing 5 Doubloons to challenge daring pirates. Any crew willing to accept this challenge must brave the waters surrounding Shipwreck…

Top 10 Sh*t Ideas from the development of Sea of Thieves

Press X to talk to Melto. Roundups
In the midst of his ongoing series of tweets covering the development of Sea of Thieves (full roundup here), Rare designer Gregg Mayles also starting a top ten list of sh*t ideas the team came up with that ultimately didn’t make it to the game. Sometimes you have to fully test an idea in context to get a real handle on how good/fun/worthwhile it is – so don’t view these too harshly. Hindsight is 20/20, after all. 1.  Magic Monkey’s Wonder Window Some ideas we tried were hilariously bad. Setting sail with #1 is ‘Magic Monkey’s Wonder Window’, which allowed…

Developer Update

Mouse and Keyboard support is on the way. Dev Update Videos
Notes of interest: The Gold and Glory weekend awards double gold and double rep. March 20th will bring a trailer for the Mega Update along with a confirmed release date. More details about the Mega Update will come via a series of live-streams. Another game update will come March 20th too, bringing: New Mercenary Voyages, replacing the existing voyages (including the Reaper’s Run voyage and time limited cosmetics) Mouse and Keyboard support for console Xbox chat-pad support Removal of the “weapon equip” delay after a sprint