In this gameplay screenshot, the player is firing cannonballs at an opposing pirate ship, which is controlled by another group of players. An enhanced version of the game was released for the Xbox Series X/S in November 2020. Sea of Thieves was a commercial success and became Microsoft's most successful original intellectual property of the eighth generation, attracting more than 30 million players by June 2022. Some of the latest updates include Season 8 releasing a new on-demand player versus player naval battle featuring the noble Guardians of Fortune and the opposing faction of the Servants of the Flame. Rare envisioned Sea of Thieves as a ' game as a service' and released numerous content updates after the initial release, which improved its overall reception. Sea of Thieves received mixed reviews critics praised the ship combat, multiplayer, visuals, and physics, but criticized the progression, gameplay, and lack of content. Microsoft Studios released Sea of Thieves in March 2018 for Windows and Xbox One it was one of the earliest first-party games released for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

Rare departed from its reputation for secrecy during Sea of Thieves 's development, inviting fans to test the game's early builds. The game features a progression system that only unlocks cosmetic items as the development team wanted to encourage both casual and experienced players to play together.

Rare explored different settings, such as vampires and dinosaurs, before settling on a pirate theme inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean films and The Goonies (1985). Rare was inspired by players of PC games such as Eve Online (2003), DayZ (2018), and Rust (2018) who used the game tools to create their own stories. Groups of players encounter each other regularly during their adventures, sometimes forming alliances, and sometimes going head-to-head. The multiplayer game sees players explore an open world via a pirate ship from a first-person perspective. The player assumes the role of a pirate who completes voyages from different trading companies. Sea of Thieves is a 2018 action-adventure game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Studios.

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