Sea of Thieves’ updates are transforming player behavior

Sea of Thieves is one of the biggest Microsoft releases of 2018, and during our conversation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show, executive producer Joe Neate was quick to point to a wall of stats that all highlight exactly how big of a deal the online pirating simulator is. It has had 4 million players, a quarter of a million people all playing at once, and an average play time of nearly 23 hours per player. But Sea of Thieves is rapidly moving from successful launch into a support phase where developer Rare must keep dedicated fans happy with new content while also continuing to bring in new players.

I spoke with Neate about how Rare can support Sea of Thieves and a number of other subjects for a half hour last week. One of the aspects of development that he touched on most was responding to what players want, and then using data to see if the tweaks, updates, and content drops are addressing those concerns. And he explained that the studio is already seeing massive shifts in the way players are approaching the game after the launch of The Hungering Deep, which is its first free add-on.