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Why Are People Watching Sea of Thieves Again

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Six years agone, we asked "Who Killed Rare?" Fast forward to 2018, and Sea of Thieves is about to set sheet on a journey its creators hope will secure the future of the legendary video game developer for years to come.

There's more to Ocean of Thieves than keeping the lights on at Rare's beautiful Leicestershire countryside offices. Keeping the lights on is of form very important indeed, which is why the game has a mail service-launch premium shop that sells virtual pets for real globe cash. But for the people who piece of work at Rare, at that place's an boosted hope that Bounding main of Thieves will finally answer the studio's critics.

Sea of Thieves banners adorn Rare's entrance hall.

Sea of Thieves, after all, is a brand new game for Rare, the studio that in its glory days introduced to the world the likes of Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, Perfect Night, Killer Instinct and Battletoads. The studio's veteran fans will hope Sea of Thieves drags Rare boot and screaming back into the large fourth dimension after a few years making Kinect Sports games and some other couple of years putting together a compilation of its back catalogue (sans GoldenEye, of course).

And yes, I'one thousand sure there'south a hope Bounding main of Thieves volition push back against that question nosotros asked in 2012: who killed Rare?

"How tin can we make Bounding main of Thieves a successful new IP that for Rare is a game people play years from now, and talk most in the same way they talk about Rare games of one-time?" Rare studio caput Craig Duncan says of the masterplan.

"And for Xbox it's the same. Forza's peachy. Gears is bang-up. Halo'southward dandy. Minecraft is great. If you recollect, what's the next new IP from Rare? If you even say those words, it's a big deal. We've put a tonne of time and endeavour and thinking into it over the last three years."

3 years might even be underselling information technology. Gregg Mayles, who has worked at Rare since 1989, says Sea of Thieves began life nearly four years ago, when "a clumsily titled concept envisaged a different type of multiplayer game where players would create 'experiences that are entertaining to watch'". It wasn't even pirates in the beginning, when the project was codenamed Athena. But information technology is very much pirates at present, and for Rare, it's all hands on deck.

You can see Ocean of Thieves everywhere in Rare'southward airy, multi-barn offices. The place is a pirate wonderland. There are pirate skeleton statues in the master lobby. Sea of Thieves banners hang from upstairs walkways. At that place's a custom-built pirate tavern (based upon the in-game pub, The Drowned Rat), in which developers pic promotional videos. Signs on office doors give staff names a pirate pun twist. Outside is a ship's wheel. Most impressive of all: built into one of the exterior walls is a row of cannons designed to look like they're peeking out the side of i of the many ships that populate Body of water of Thieves' shared-world.

Rare is fabricated upwardly of some 200 staff, and pretty much all of them are working on Bounding main of Thieves correct now. In one open up-plan room sits a gigantic screen that shows Ocean of Thieves' network information. Smaller screens prove pre-release builds of the game in action. In the corner of the room the PC build is being stretched and squashed until it tin can exist run on a irish potato. It's not long earlier I realise I've been in this Bail villain-way control room earlier. Back in 2014 it was home to a Kinect Sports Rivals hands-on preview event, and was packed with pods for all the various mini-games. I can't come across whatever trace of Kinect Sports Rivals in the room now.

In another room, gameplay capture devices are slotted into a custom-congenital wall fixture, with screens on the opposite wall showing live feeds of Sea of Thieves played in nearby booths. There are a lot of capture kits here (each booth has a camera pointed at the role player as well as a capture device funnelled into the hardware) and a lot of screens, but one press of a push and everything synchronises for easy multi-feed recording - a bespoke slice of tech Rare needed to support Sea of Thieves' streaming shenanigans.

Body of water of Thieves is a Rare game, but it is also a first-party game, and equally a first-political party game, it's an Xbox showcase. So, the game holds hands with Mixer, Microsoft's reply to Twitch. The hook here is the viewer sees the activeness from multiple players' perspectives at the same time. Bounding main of Thieves, which is built around the idea of iv-role player crews getting up to no good on a pirate ship, is the perfect Mixer game. It might even be the perfect streamer game full finish.

"Every bit a first party studio for Xbox and Microsoft, we take a function to play, which is we go and make awesome game experiences that concenter people into our platforms and services," Duncan says. "That's our job. That's why Microsoft has studios, why Sony has studios."

This directive is etched onto the walls at Rare. I room, which has been turned into a place for the design team to test and hash out new features, has a company motto printed onto the wall, i that mentions making groovy games for Xbox. The point is, Rare'south betting big on Sea of Thieves, and at that place's a lot riding on its success. Only success means different things to different people.

"There are different measures of success," executive producer Joe Neate says. "Patently revenue is i thing that's a measure out of success. Simply so is the amount of people playing our game via Game Pass. Are new people subscribing to Game Pass to play Sea of Thieves? How many people are playing on a monthly active footing? And besides, how many people are sharing stuff, or watching Bounding main of Thieves?"

I get the sense there's a cautious optimism about Sea of Thieves' unusual entreatment, buoyed by the positive reception to the recent closed beta. Duncan mentions various impressive streaming-related statistics, such as Sea of Thieves being the number one game on Twitch for a week. The play tricks will be to turn those who enjoy watching Ocean of Thieves into paying customers.

Again, a cautious optimism. "It'south a very watchable and shareable game," Neate says. "Nosotros've seen from our beta that people watching other people play has driven them to come into the game. It's driven pre-orders during that time catamenia. Watching people play and seeing their adventures and going, oh, what could I do, sparks your creativity and imagination and makes y'all desire to come into this.

"And because it's a fun and welcoming game, you're not watching a super competitive game, which is neat to picket but and so going, I'k not going to exist able to practice that. Instead, you're watching it and going, oh that was really funny, or, I wouldn't have imagined using the explosive barrel in that way, or firing myself out of the cannon into someone crow'south nest. Yous start going, oh, what can I do in that game? You lot see a real conversion of people who want to and so come up in and try stuff.

"There are so many reasons why I take such confidence in the appeal of Sea of Thieves. Strategically we've made some really good decisions around the type of game we're making and how we're bringing it to market place. For me, it's about the scale of the opportunity and making the virtually of the opportunity. That's the pressure I feel. Information technology's like making the most of the opportunity."

Sea of Thieves and Game Laissez passer are interesting bedfellows. Game Pass lets you pay a monthly subscription and in return you can download and play games from a library of titles. Microsoft recently announced all start-party games, that is, all Microsoft Studios-published games, will be bachelor on Game Pass the same solar day as they come out in shops. And the first start-political party game to hit Game Pass day and appointment with retail is Sea of Thieves.

Game Laissez passer could be huge for Bounding main of Thieves. At that place's a 14-twenty-four hour period free trial that I imagine many will activate and then they can give Sea of Thieves a shot when it comes out in March. If they like it after the two-calendar week trial expires, they can pay eight quid to play it for a calendar month. Then if they still like information technology, another eight quid for another month. And then on. Sea of Thieves starts to sound a flake like a subscription MMO when Game Pass gets involved.

There'southward also the expectation that Sea of Thieves will run into an influx of new players this Christmas, when many Xbox Ones are sold, many Game Laissez passer free trials are activated and millions of people are looking for a absurd game to download and play. Past then, Rare volition take had nine months of Sea of Thieves postal service-launch updates under its belt. It should be a smashing Christmas game.

Rare, clearly, is in this Sea of Thieves business concern for the long-term. But plans sometimes change, and if the game fails to set up tills alight, Rare may have to think once again. No-one's saying Microsoft will force Rare to walk the plank if Sea of Thieves sinks without a trace, simply it'due south worth remembering who's in charge hither, and what they're capable of. Just a couple of years agone Microsoft closed down Lionhead, a young man fabled British programmer. There'due south not much room for sentimentality in big business organisation.

The developers at Rare, for their role, say they promise to work on Body of water of Thieves for years to come. "This is a major new IP for Rare and Xbox," Duncan declares at the offset of a presentation. "I would beloved to be standing in front of you guys five years from at present and talking well-nigh Ocean of Thieves and people still be playing Bounding main of Thieves. Nosotros're in this for the long game."

Or, every bit one ex-Rare developer put information technology to me recently: if Bounding main of Thieves breaks fifty-fifty information technology'll be their terminal game. After that, it'll be Sea of Thieves forever!

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Just look at how far Blizzard has come up since the release of Earth of Warcraft. And one thing I volition say about the developers at Rare is they seem pretty pumped about Sea of Thieves' potential equally a platform for ongoing evolution. And, every bit you'd expect, there's a lot of love for pirates. I'm not sure you could work at the place correct now if you hated pirates.

In 2014, during my visit to Rare for the Kinect Sports Rivals event, I discussed our Who Killed Rare? commodity with Craig Duncan. He told me he took information technology equally, "I'll show them, because that's what I do."

"I'1000 super excited about Kinect Sports Rivals and I'm really excited about that launching, but I'm also excited about what's next for Rare, because that'll be an important projection in the same way," he added.

An important project, indeed.

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Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/will-sea-of-thieves-resurrect-rare

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