Sea of Thieves: Content Plans

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.

[Gazondaily]

Well at least the new content is free.

Lets see how it turns out new AI enemies and things to do and areas to explore is great. That's what the game needs. Not just a cop out with some additional pets etc.

Gotta release that stuff quick though because I suspect people are already losing interest

[OC_MurphysLaw]

agreed

[RpgSama]

The first content update will come in May (no date), we still have to see how big and how much it adds to the world

"We got this beautiful world to explore and arguably there is not enough reasons or motivation to go out and explore, you kinda feel like you should be getting a reward for doing it"

This came straight out of the video, they KNOW the game doesn't give you anything to DO or EARN.

[aconnellan]

@RpgSama

Of course they know that - he then directly addressed that point by saying that's what they're aiming to fix with the major updates (first one in May) as well as the weekly updates (starting in 2-3 weeks time).

I'd be far more concerned if they didn't acknowledge that

[RpgSama]

@aconnellan

Exactly, they knew they released a shell of a game after 4+ years in the making, a beautiful game to look at but with nothing to Do or Earn, with the plan of maybe update it if moderately successful at first and only until there is money to be made by adding content to it, for a Fully priced $60 game this is inadmissible.

[fiveby9]

Well had the game had more content upon release or was delayed to include it then we wouldn't see such damage control articles. It's not that it is a terrible game but it surely underwhelmed. And I agree @septic, I think many are losing interest.

[TheCommentator]

@RPG Sama

Rare told us this is how the game would be at launch weeks before its release, along with plans to release a steady stream of content after launch, and a desire to listen to fan feedback. It's hard to imagine a company being more transparent about their product that that.

PS: The add ons are free, so there's no money to be made off of them.

[IamTylerDurden1]

My question is, if they know the game is empty and unrewarding then why did they release it like that? Surely playtesting revealed this long ago? How could they release the game for $60 knowing that? This was a 200 man team on AAA budget, there is no excuse, and they are absolute gaming vets. People ripped No Man's Sky at launch, and it did release way too early and $60 was too expensive at the time. But that was a 12 man indie team working on a small budget. It doesn't exonerate Hello Games but at least you can understand to an extent. Sea of Thieves has 20x the people and probably 10x the budget. And Rare probably has decades more experience.

[showtimefolks]

Sadly in this day and age games are launching and we are having to wait on developers to finish games or provide enough content to play

This is GAAS

I think GAAS can be done right of the game launches when it finished and than developers deliver steady content post launch

But you launch with a unfinished game only to fix it should be considered GAAS

What I want to know is what we're developers at rare doing for over 4 years during development. Or did they think we only focus on water physics

[RpgSama]

Exactly!, A GAAS isn't nothing new, MMORPG have been doing this for years, for your GAAS to succeed and be appreciated by the community at large it HAS to launch as a complete game that the developers keep adding to it, not a shell of a game that the developers complete while you pay for it's completion, this is not early access, which I also hate, but at least they are upfront about getting your money to do the game.

[Concertoine]

Splatoon was very successful with its content drip system, imo.

Honestly it sounds like Rare is hearing the feedback on the forums and reddit and theyve come up with a tailored content map. Ive put a lot of time in the game and really only the forts excite me anymore. I think i'll lay off the grind because more fun ways to progress/make loot sound like theyre on the way.

Dont understand why they cant release the cosmetics from the beta in the meantime though,

[3-4-5]

only thing that kept me from trading the game in. Played 3 hours...solo....bored out of my mind..

I'll see where this is a year from now.

[corroios]

well its very easy, you just need to:
create more new quests,
more new enemies,
more new types of boats,
more new sea beasts,
better AI,
better combat system,
Loot, better loot, end game loot,

[OffRoadKing]

And pray your player base hasn't already moved on.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

The question is why would a large 200 person studio release a tittle with such little content in the first place. If Sea of Thieves flopped or got poor Gamepass engagement, a whole lot of people could have lost their jobs. Content effects reviews which inturn influence salesperformance of a game. Not to mention Sea of Thieves hasn’t had the best player retention.

[jokerisalive]

sounds cool.

[tombfan]

I think Destiny 2 had even more content on launch day... And that's saying something.

[madforaday]

Destiny 2 had TONS of content! The problem was there was no end game grind or loot in general to actually play the content. When you can get ALL the loot in a loot base game, you know you have a problem lol

[slavish0]

You never plaid sea of thieves though

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

It’s ridiculous that they even have to layout a content plan for a game that just released. That shows us just how little thought went into this game in the first place.

[FPS_D3TH]

Lmao what? Most games layout and announce dlc before a games even released these day. Being that all of this is free major content I don’t see how it’s any different than any other game.

[OffRoadKing]

Additional content added to a game already having content versus content added to fill a void do to lack of content, big difference.

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

This game has no real content. What you are talking about is expansion packs. There is a difference

[slavish0]

Never feed a troll

[coolbeans]

...we've literally left a console generation where content plans were habitually laid out BEFORE the game's release. I'm not sure you understand the commonality of this practice (and no, not just limited to the dreaded GaaS games).

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

I call bs. This game has no real content and the community is in an uproar over which explains why they have to come out 3 weeks after launch to tell us more content is coming. They released a bare bones game AND THAT is why they are already coming out with a content road map. This is not an MMO is a content roadmap is not expected in a game like this. Don’t fool yourself this game is as bare as it gets.

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

Name one game that was not modeled after an MMO and was not an expansion pass from last gen that did a road map 3 weeks after launch.

[rainslacker]

While I get the point you're trying to make, the content plans of last gen were more annoying because the games weren't expected to be the GaaS style games. DLC and MT sure, we kind of came to expect that, but now we're seeing the F2P paradigm make it's way into the traditional full priced game market.

Of course, we all complained about it last gen. MS was smart to fancy up the name of what we mostly came to dislike, and denounced mobile gaming constantly regardless of console preference.

Of course, a content plan for a GaaS game is a good thing. But so is having a good amount of content for a game they actually sell for $60.

[FPS_D3TH]

It’s painfully obvious you don’t understand gaas. The games missing content but it’s laughable to say there isn’t an enjoyable game there to play...

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

And it’s laughable that you’re ok with a FULL PRICED GAME being released with less content than most indie games. You can be a sucker all you want but I refuse to be. And please show me where I said the game wasn’t enjoyable. I’ll wait...

[coolbeans]

So your response back to me has a lot of layers, and part of that is problematic b/c of you now shifting the goalposts. To explain:

-Original comment: "It’s ridiculous that they even have to layout a content plan for a game that just released."

-2nd reply to me asking me to provide proof to my claims: "Name one game that was not modeled after an MMO and was not an expansion pass from last gen that did a road map 3 weeks after launch."

Expansion passes literally are content plans! The vast majority of which I can remember (whether it was Bioshock: Infinte, ME3) would provide a summation of what kind of new content they were going to add down the road. And in regards to MMO/GaaS-structured titles, let's look at Destiny 2.

http://planetdestiny.com/de...

*Gasp* A roadmap just within a few DAYS of its release? Going by the twisted logic you initially spouted, SoT had more thought put into it than Destiny 2! And what's this confusion about SoT not being an MMO? I mean...granted it's not in the sense of being a WoW clone; however, the GaaS model is connected to that genre in respect to content drips. Your whole "roadmap this early ='s lack of thought put into the game" doesn't hold any water.

[AizenSosuke]

Just waiting on Rare mistakes being fixed.

[gustave154]

Early Access game confirmed

[Italiano1234567]

This to me sounds exactly like destiny 2 which is y noone plays it. Been working on this game for how long release it bare bones get 68 on metacritic and now u expect people to by into this shit.idc if the shits free. U already pissed way to many people off

[FPS_D3TH]

Can’t buy into it when it’s free

[TheCommentator]

But the people they pissed off generally just troll the N4G forums and don't own an XB1 in the first place.

[Bhai]

Ah yeah I don't own an xb1, not dumb enough to buy one to see it ain't worth it... with more 'industry & generation' defining games coming on PS4 than I can afford to buy in a go, I don't see it fit to waste that money on a console with basically no games to boot and has gaaS filled PUBG n' SoT tech demos... even Phil's latest acceptance, rather bending a knee in front of Single-Player masterpieces and their importance is the latest metric for me to judge that his own console offering is sh!te, and gonna go to some deep one... yeah, that makes some factual sense aye ;) ....... but yep, as soon as I'm up playing Yakuza 6, I visit xb1 side of N4G to see the suffering corporate lies bring to a fanbase... I'm kind of a student to that ;) :D

[TheCommentator]

@ Bhai

Good. Go play your PS4, enjoy the games it has and don't be dumb enough to call someone else dumb for not sharing the same tastes in gaming as you. I like what Xbox offers better than PS... It's my choice. I prefer the controller, the services, and the company too. Again, my choice. I can respect that you and most others
like PS better, yet it doesn't bother me that my choice isn't most popular. It bothers me that people like you feel the need to harass people like me just for being different.

Go make positive comments about PS products... I'm sure there's enough to talk about that you don't need to come and make comments like this here anyways. Then we both win.

[FPS_D3TH]

Sounds like they’re on the right track. Been saying how they’ll need to focus on gameplay changing events. The sandbox is great right now, changing up how people play is what I’d like to see along with new meaningful adventures.

[Tedakin]

I love this game, but content aside, considering how buggy and broken everything is, it's clear this was nowhere near ready to come out, but they had a deadline.

[Automatic79]

Love this game if the right content is released. I can see more epic adventures I create. I love freedom of creating my own adventure. This is what most people are not use to in Videogames. Rare has a hit. Keep up the good work Team Rare.

[GamingSinceForever]

If the content wasn’t already planned and in the works, you’ll likely get garbage in the end. Making entertaining content is their jobs, not the consumers.

[cfc83]

Destiny had a much bigger dev team etc..Give rare time. They're trying their best. To me this game has been very good to play. I've never heard so many people use mics before.

[FloydianAndroid]

I’m an Xbox guy, but I feel like all the money went to creating cool looking water and not much else. It’s beautiful to look at, but that’s about it. The only thing to buy with the gold you get is cosmetic items which you can’t see because it’s a third person game. Skeletons and sharks are the only enemies. There’s no skill trees or progression. The game has lots of potential, but it all depends on how and how fast tangible content is added.

[Deathdeliverer]

They are dead wrong for this. I warned people from my alpha and beta experiences.

[InTheZoneAC]

it's tooo laaate.....

[Cmoney007]

This game will continue to get better, but we are in 2018, how can RARE not understand what makes a great pirate game that took them four years to launch?

Here is what RARE did right with the game IMO.......
-Sailing with friends
-PVP
-Repairing your ship
-Throwing up on each other
-Getting drunk!
-Shooting yourself out of a cannon
-Finding gold
-Skeleton forts

Here is what RARE did wrong with the game IMO......
-No jails at the ports
-No Bar fights
-No escaping from jail
-No guards at the port to fight
-Weak rewards for quests
-Repetitive boring quests
-Weak variety of enemies
-Getting new ships from rewards that are better than the one you have

[Bhai]

WOW sooo much talk... sooo much to release in 'Da Future"??? :O XD like, WTF they launched this sh!t with???

That's damage control guys... listen MS... the opposition is freakin' playing Yakuza 6, Ni No Kuni 2, the generation defining god of WAR 4 in a week, and in a month: DETROIT !

Pure shame on you for destroying your brand and fanbase like this!