The Sea of Thieves Closed Beta launched today and it looks like gamers are loving the experience and copiously sharing it. Currently, the game is the most watched title on streaming platforms like Mixer and Twitch. This is remarkable given the popularity of games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and other recent releases.
Sea of Thieves is an upcoming exploration-based pirate game from Rare. The developer is known for many famous franchises including Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, and GoldenEye. However, in recent years, the team focused on developing Kinect games for Xbox One and Xbox 360. This was a curious decision so when Phil Spencer became Head of Xbox in 2014, he assigned them a new project. Sea of Thieves is a shift for the developer and a concept the team hasn't tackled before.
The nature of Sea of Thieves makes it a prime candidate for streamers, due to the game's open nature and potential for high seas hijinks. It features Rare's signature humor, and plenty of ways to entertain viewers due to the emergent, player-driven gameplay that comes with competitive open world piracy. You can board enemy ships, steal their loot, kill them, or even just chat and dance with them. The decision is entirely yours. I expect most of the time, there will be killing, however. They are pirates after all and that is what they do.
Sea of Thieves is dominating streaming sites this morning, clocking up over 150,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch, beating the likes of League of Legends and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Sea of Thieves is also dominating Mixer and YouTube Gaming with countless streamers and viewers.
Sea of Thieves features co-op multiplayer and is played from a first-person perspective. Just like Destiny, it takes place in a shared world. A group of players travel in the open world together and take on different roles. For example, the captain may steer the ship while the other individuals attack enemy vessels. Despite being open-ended, there are numerous quests, loot and combat opportunities. It's all about finding your own way in this massive oceanic world.
Sea of Thieves has been delayed a few times but we finally have a concrete release date. As announced at The Game Awards 2017, the game is now scheduled to launch on March 20, 2018, across Xbox One and Windows 10. The game will also supports Xbox Play Anywhere and native 4K resolution on Xbox One X.
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