Play Sea of Thieves With Friends For Free For A Limited Time

Microsoft and Rare announced a new "Friends Play Free" event that allows anyone who owns Sea of Thieves or subscribes to Xbox Game Pass to invite up to three friends to try the pirate game for a limited time.

You can get codes for your friends from February 6 to February 13. Along with this event, Rare is running a limited-time quest to find the treasure of Rum Runner. Those who complete the quest will get special rewards. To get your friends' codes, head here.

If your friends play the game with you and decide to become permanent members of your crew, Sea of Thieves will be available for 35% off until February 27. 

Skeleton Ships And More Coming To Sea Of Thieves In Free Update

Rare's Sea of Thieves is getting pirate ships and a treasure chest full of new content. This should bring waves of players back to the game when it’s biggest update yet hits on July 31 for free. These new additions will be introduced in a new three-week-long campaign called Cursed Sails. This time-limited story pits you against A.I.-controlled skeleton ships that are terrorizing outputs and pirates on the high seas. To combat this new threat, players can set sail in a new three-player Brigantine ship, and even work with other players to gain bigger rewards through alliances. If you get deep into this story, and want to know where the origin of the skeletons, you can take on a new side quest. If you arrive to the part after the three-week campaign ends, you'll only miss the story. All of the content that comes from it will remain in the game. Check out the Cursed Sails brings in the video below.

Sea Of Thieves Update Adds Limited Edition Rifle + More

The latest Sea of Thieves update, patch 1.0.6, adds a sweet new limited edition rifle, alongside a few quality-of-life improvements. As detailed on a forum post, players can purchase the “Launch Crew” Eye of Reach rifle for only the next two weeks. The weapon will cost one Gold and you can check out how it looks like in the image below. Due to player feedback, Rare has reduced Skeleton accuracy when shooting cannons from islands at long distances. Rare has also adjusted the position of ammo crates on both the sloop and the galleon. Players can also look forward to trying out four new cosmetic outfits, which you can view in this Reddit thread. For a more detailed look at the update, check out the full patch notes.

Here’s Whats Coming To Sea Of Thieves

Sea of Thieves has had a rocky launch, but developer Rare is attempting to correct course as executive producer Joe Neate and design director Mike Chapman outline in a video update detailing Sea of Thieves' future. The two discussed how the next month will be focused on addressing major fan feedback first, which informs how the team broaches new content down the line. Some of these design philosophies include offering more goals and rewards for exploration, more emergent events taking place during PvP and PvE, and expanding the ways players can become Pirate Legends and what they can do beyond that status.

Diverse weekly events are in the works that reuse mechanics and portions of the world in new ways, granting rewards for your efforts to explore as well. Beyond this goal, the first content update in May will unveil The Hungering Deep, which will encourage players to band together against a mysterious new threat. Summer will see the release of Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores, which offers new enemy types that rock the proverbial boat. Three more free updates are scheduled for the fall and winter. Thoughts ? will this bring you back to Sea of Thieves ? Depending on the content, I would definitely could get back into Sea of Thieves.

Sea Of Thieves Is Microsofts Fastest Selling First Party New IP

Microsoft has announced sales for Sea of Thieves, Rare's open-seas pirate adventure, as the fastest-selling first-party new IP of this generation. Over 2 million players have joined in on the first week, prompting Microsoft to not only call it the fastest-selling first-party new IP, but also declare it the best selling Microsoft Studios game on Windows 10. There are a number of qualifiers in that statement, but Microsoft marketing boss Aaron Greenberg pointed out that these accolades do not include Game Pass numbers.

Here's Whats In The First Sea Of Thieves Update [UPDATE] Death Cost No Longer Coming Soon

Rare has already launched its first update for Sea of Thieves. The update offers changes including highlighting a favorite pirate that you've created to how you'll pay for your death. You can find the full patch notes the Sea of Thieves site, but here are some of the highlights:

• Favorite Pirate – Sea of Thieves doesn't feature a full suite of character customization options, but rather generates randomly selected pirates for you to choose from. Want to save a potential favorite for later and try again? Now you can!
• Achievements – Previously, there was a delay when achievements would unlock in Sea of Thieves. That issue has been resolved.
• Snakes! – Along with pigs and chickens, snakes have now been added to the island. Their poisonous spit can be used to ward off any scallywags who dare try to steal your treasure.
• Coming soon: Death Cost – A trip to Davey Jones' Locker is going to start costing you gold. The way that you meet your demise will affect how much gold you will have to pay (so dying from a Kraken will most likely cost less than if you were starring at a map and walked off a cliff). Rare does not intend for this gold fee to be applied to any PVP related deaths.

Sea of Thieves is available now for Xbox One and PC.


UPDATE 3/26/18 -  Joe Neate, the executive producer on Sea of Thieves has confirmed on Twitter that the Death cost will no longer b coming to the game.

"Letting everyone know we've heard the feedback and the proposed 'Death Cost' in #SeaOfThieves is, well, dead. We messed up with the messaging around this, and it's now gone. Thanks for the honest feedback & discussion on this."

Rare Reveals What You’ll Need To Run Sea Of Thieves On PC

Rare has shared the requirements for all specifications to run Sea of Thieves on PC. A handy graph shaped like a treasure chart reveals specific settings, such as what is needed to run the game at 1080p resolution and 30 frames per second, or the same resolution but at 60 fps. Regardless of your rig, everyone will need at least 60 GB of hard drive space.

Rare Extends Sea Of Thieves Beta After Connectivity Issues

Rare has announced  that it will extend the closed beta for Sea of Thieves until Wednesday, January 31. This comes after numerous players reported issues connecting to the beta, including a "too early" message for those who pre-ordered the game digitally.

"We know your gaming hours are precious and our number one goal is to get everyone with closed beta access into the game as soon as possible," said Sea of Thieves engagement manager Emma Bridle in an update post. "We want to ensure that anyone who has missed out on any time sailing the seas still gets to enjoy the closed beta to its fullest." 

The beta will now run until January 31 at 8 am GMT.

Sea of Thieves Closed Beta Coming On January 24

Microsoft has announced a closed beta for Sea of Thieves will be taking place on January 24. The beta will run its start date 4:00 AM PT on January 24 to 12:00 AM PT on January 29. The closed beta is available to players who preordered the game and anyone who joined the Sea of Thieves Insider Program before December 1, 2017. The beta will be available on both Windows 10 and Xbox One. Sea of Thieves will also be releasing on both those platforms on March 20.

Microsoft Announces Glow-In-The-Dark Sea Of Thieves Xbox One Controller

Microsoft has announced a sweet Sea of Thieves Xbox One controller. It’s deep purple, glow-in-the-dark Xbox One controller and will be available next month, February 15 to be exact. Featuring a "translucent design" and "laser-etched barnacles", the controller also has its own hidden treasure in the form of the right trigger being gold as well as a nautical design on the rear of the controller. The front face of the controller has as its centerpiece a glow-in-the-dark skull wearing an eyepatch, and continuing with the nautical theme, the left control stick has the appearance of a compass. Sea of Thieves releases on March 20 for Xbox One and PC.

Activision Almost Purchased Rare

Xbox co-creator Ed Fries revealed to IGN on IGN Unfiltered that Activision nearly managed to get the rights to Rare. Fries said it was looking like Activision would get Rare until Microsoft increased their bid at the very last minute meaning that they took control of the company.“So we put in a bid and then Activision outbid us, and it looked like we were going to lose the deal,” Xbox co-creator Ed Fries explained on the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, which debuts tomorrow. And then at the very last minute Robbie increased our bid and we won the deal. And that was it,” Fries said, adding, “Who knows what could have happened with Rare.” In the end I wish Nintendo would’ve purchased Rare but I’m happy that Activision didn’t. Could you imagine what that would've look like ? 

30 Rare Games Coming To Xbox One

During Microsoft’s E3 press conference today, Rare announced a collection of there games to celebrate the studio's 30-year history. Rare Replay will have 30 Rare games for $30 and will support 10,000 gamerscore and release on August 4 on Xbox One. Some of the games included are:

• Banjo-Kazooie
• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
• Killer Instinct
• Kameo: Elements of Power
• Blast Corps
• Solar Jetman
• R.C. PRO-AM
• R.C. PRO-AM II
• Viva Piñata 
• Battletoads
• Conker's Bad Fur Day
• Perfect Dark
• Perfect Dark Zero

Yooka-Laylee Is The Spiritual Successor To Banjo-Kazooie

The stars of  Project Ukelele have been unveiled, a chameleon and a bat named Yooka and Laylee. Much like Banjo-Kazooie, the duo is named after an instrument and must work together in the game. Playtonic has decided to crowd-fund the game and is launching a Kickstarter, where we will find out more details about the game. Some other details about Yooka and Laylee are they were created by Steve Mayles who created Banjo, Kazooie and the Donkey Kong family from Donkey Kong 64. Where you a Banjo-Kazooie fan ? Are you excited for Yooka-Laylee ?