In a recent developer update, Rare laid out plans to alter the way that Sea of Thieves ' multiplayer operates, while also explaining how the studio planned to deal with cheating in the game before briefly touching upon the topic of post-launch cont

The first, significant change that Rare plans to introduce will allow players the option of choosing whether their ship is "invite-only," rather than open to any matchmade players. This change would allow groups of less than four players, for example, to crew a ship without having another player assigned automatically to their crew. Rare apparently hopes that this change will discourage players from misusing the brig system to lock up automatically-assigned play

With little time left in 2018, Rare is already preparing for next year, beginning with a new PVP mode called The Arena . There is no release date as of yet, but players should expect it to launch early in 2019. According to Polygon , The Arena is not a Battle Royale mode, although the game mode will allow players to compete with one another quickly. The Arena will pit gamers against one another in a search for treasure. The new PVP mode will include a new tavern and a new trading company, The Sea Dogs, who will face off against the players as w

The multiplayer changes planned by Rare also including a matchmaking system that filters by microphone status and language, allowing players to prioritize matchmaking with other players who have the same microphone status as themselves, and Strategyreviewer.Com who are speaking the same langu

There's promise in this move for the company, as it increases the quality and capabilities of its first-party arsenal. Whether that means extra polish for games like Halo 6 , development of brand new intellectual properties, or resurrecting forgotten favorites like Banjo-Kazooie , the development power will soon be there for all of these plans take root. The only issue with this strategy is that building studios and acquiring others takes time, and there's a strong likelihood that these plans will take years to come to fruition if Microsoft is only just acting on t

Rare has been hard at work making up for the initial lack of content, but the game was still coming up short when it came to competitive action. The new PVP mode could change all that. To be clear, The Arena won’t be another Battle Royale but Rare never wanted it to be. They set out to create a game different from those around them. Hopefully for players 2019 will unveil a new series of fun content to keep them returning to Sea of Thiev

It’s official, Sea of Thieves is getting a PVP mode. Earlier this year it was reported that the action-adventure game was considering adding a Battle Royale mode . Game developer Rare’s design director, Mike Chapman stated that the interest was there but that the developer wanted to create a twist to the game mode. Evidently this is exactly what Rare has done, creating a PVP mode with a few extra flourishes to tie back to the rest of the g

That's not to say that the publisher is without exclusive titles, with the likes of Crackdown 3 and State of Decay 2 being the two known exclusives arriving in 2018, but when stacked up against Sony's God of War and Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. the choice of which console to purchase likely won't lean in the Xbox One's favor. This is a subjective take to be sure, but there's truth in recognizing the popularity and raw sales numbers from each of the franchises included; at the end of the day Smash and God of War are just bigger na

The pirated themed co-op was released this past March to mixed reviews. Critics praised the open-world gameplay but found there was too little content to keep players engaged . In response, the developer started churning out new content. Rare began sending out a stream of weekly patches as well as releasing several free expansion packs in order to keep gameplay interesting. The first three updates, The Hungering Deep , Cursed Sails , and Forsaken Shores unveiled a mixture of permanent and time-limited content. Gamers got fog, a volcano, and a megalodon battle added to a world already populated with treasure hunts and fights with angry skeletons. A fourth expansion pack, Shrouded Spoils is set to release later this mo

Beddall's comments certainly match up with how some players are feeling about Sea of Thieves . Although the game is an enjoyable one, there is a sense of frustration that the gameplay on offer doesn't give as much variety that would be hoped from such a highly anticipated release . As such, it's easy to see why some users feel as though Sea of Thieves has not progressed enough from testing to really be considered a full launch right

This update and how transparent and honest it is great. It's the right step, and an important one we hope Rare does very frequently. Being open and addressing feedback and constructive criticisms is one of the important keys to success for online games with passionate communities - and those devs who don't communicate or offer game updates quickly are the ones that turn advocates of the game into haters. We see it all the time among some of the other popular games online - especially the ones that streamers are actively play