Sea of Thieves has released online and has passed its first 48 hours of life milestone but not without its challenges. Thanks to this latest project from developer Rare being one of the most anticipated games of 2018 – and Microsoft helping boost player counts by making it available as part of their Game Pass subscription plan – there’s an overwhelming amount of interest. So much so, that Sea of Thieves as not been working as intended to say the least
And while us players are certainly not getting what we paid for (yet), the devs are feeling the stress as well. This is where the devs step in to explain the situation and plan going forward, and they’ve done so in a very smart way.
Related: Sea of Thieves Review in Progress
Not wasting anytime since the game really only released worldwide yesterday, Rare Studio Head Craig Duncan and Sea of Thieves Executive Producer Joe Neate got together and shot the above video from their offices to offer the first official Sea of Thieves “Developer Update.” In it they explain that the game has 3-4 times more players than they had in their final and biggest stress test beta, and had over 1 million players logging in within the first 48 hours – up to more than 5000 players trying to match make per minute. These are numbers they just didn’t expect which is a positive nod towards Microsoft’s marketing efforts on their big exclusive and a potential indicator of the success of the Xbox Game Pass.
We noted in our first impressions of Sea of Thieves that the server issues are a problem all too common in online games and one that after all these years shouldn’t still happen, but it does. So please be prepared going in that there may be difficulties joining with others in a crew, and that it’s possible to lose connection while playing, and with it, your loot that you’ve yet to redeem at an outpost. This can be infuriating but it’s part of the growing pains and reality of this game at the moment.
As for bugs like inventory items not showing up in the radial menus, that still can happen often enough that you may have to rejoin a game to fix. Missing gold, reputation levels, and achievements however seem to be just delayed – meaning Rare doesn’t think you’re actually losing any of that. It just may take a while to show up, or will show up next time you get into a game.
All of the issues that are common and raised online in the forums, Discord, and Sea of Thieves Subreddit are things the developers are seeing and noting as well. Hopefully, this up update address the obvious concerns and quells some of the brewing negativity online. It’s been such a problem that even the downvote option was seemingly removed from the Sea of Thieves page.
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 playing.
Once things are running smoothly for the gorgeous and fun-filled game, hopefully Rare can start on the other issues with the game: the apparent lack of content and variety.
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