A Sea Of Possibilities?

Sea of Thieves is an upcoming Microsoft exclusive, meaning it will only be available to play on the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows, being developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Studios. It is entirely online, which can be awesome and troublesome at the same time. It is a open world adventure game set on the high seas in pirate infested waters. You’re goal: discover new locations, find hidden loot, steal treasures from other players, and complete different “voyages” offer from in game vendors.

The game being in a closed beta right now. Only a few select play testers and content creators have access to the this unfinished version of the product, most of which have been publishing reviews and gameplay videos of their time in the game. Think of this as more of one big advertisement. Yes, the game’s developer is trying to gather community feedback to make last minute adjustments to the game before March 20th launch date. The main reason for this beta, though, is so the game’s publishing company can show off their near finished product to the world and gather information to predict sales.

As the beta nears it’s close though, this big PR event seems to had cause a bit of backlash for the Rare and Microsoft. After the beta began, players immediately began to explore the games world and all it had to offer. Then they kept exploring, and kept exploring, and after awhile some of them started to ask questions about what experiences and mechanics weren’t included in the beta that would be in the final game. As of now those questions have gone unanswered.

If there’s one thing that can kill a game quickly it’s lack of content at launch. Games such as 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront and Evolve, two games that had so much hype around them, one for the fact that it was a reboot of a much loved franchise and the other because it showed an new concept for online competitive gaming. Both games had strong player counts during their release but those numbers quickly drop for one major reason, players had no reason to keep playing the games. With little to do to begin with, players quickly moved onto other things and even later additions of more in game content couldn’t repair the damage that had already been done.

Sea Of Thieves now faces a similar problem. People are already making allegation that the game lacks content that will create replay-ability or just make the game worth buying. After all what’s the point in playing a online only game if there’s no one else to play it with. As more negative talk began to circulate around the game, the developers started to try and explain how future content will be work within the game, which has had mixed results. Many players claim that the game has plenty of content and won’t be dead on launch, other are still skeptical and are questioning whether or not the game will be worth the 60 dollar price tag. Either way all Sea Of Thieves  is now is a bag of opportunities for the developers and the players alike. My advice, wait to buy the game until shortly after launch. If the game goes belly up, you can be satisfied you were smart with your money. If it succeeds, then you’ve got an awesome game to explore, even if you are a few days late to the party.