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If areas under the deck take damage, water will flow in and cause the ship to gradually sink. Occasionally players may encounter hostile players who may attack them with cannonballs or board their ship. Players can save the loadout of the ship, customize the ship’s hull, figurehead, sails and captain’s quarters, as well as name their ship. Solo and duo players sail around in a nimble sloop while players playing in a group control a larger three-person brigantine or a four-person galleon cooperatively by assuming different roles such as steering the ship, manning the cannons, navigating, boarding enemy ships, and scouting from the crow’s nest. The game is set in a shared world, which means groups of players will encounter each other throughout their adventures. At the beginning of the game, the player selects their procedurally generated player avatar. Sea of Thieves is a first-person perspective action-adventure. An enhanced version of the game was released for the Xbox Series X/S in November 2020. 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 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.
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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. Sea of Thieves received mixed reviews critics praised the ship combat, multiplayer, visuals, and physics, but criticized the progression, gameplay, and lack of content. 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, 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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