Pirating the high seas is thirsty work, especially when you have a whole crew that wants a taste of the plunder. Sea of Thieves remains very popular to this day, if not more popular than ever before. Rare is particularly fond of its accomplishments in growing the player base and improving its franchise of the years and has no plans to close up shop anytime soon. There are plenty of doubloons still funding development, after all. Players simply want the features to expand and the content to continue. With this in mind, Rare has adopted its development strategy for Sea of Thieves in 2021 to include seasons and quarterly content updates.
Some may see this as a regression, because the game received monthly updates (in most cases) throughout 2020, but the battle pass may be the silver lining to other fans. Rare appropriately calls this new battle pass the “Plunder Pass,” and it will come in both free and paid forms. While the free version is sure to be a bare-bones package, the premium version will offer additional perks like Emporium discounts.
Just like in any other game, the battle pass will offer long-term progression rewards across 100 tiers of content. Rare hopes the change will allow players to feel more satisfied with progression, particularly during shorter play sessions. The developers mentioned that battle pass progress will be earned through “adventuring, exploration, combat with the world and with other players, and all aspects of life at sea,” so no surprises there.
Seasons tidings
Aside from the battle pass, we learned that Sea of Thieves seasons will run for three months at a time. Hence, quarterly updates. Players can expect smaller events to come and go as usual, while other in-game activities will change over time as well. The first season will launch sometime in January 2021, and include a new Merchant Alliance voyage that tasks you with locating a lost shipment of goods. More will likely be revealed once we near the beginning of Season 1. There are of course more quality of life changes coming in Season 1 as well, but that’s all on the horizon for now.
In the meantime, you can set your sights on the return of the Festival of Giving event. It’s naturally a holiday themed event, so it should keep you somewhat occupied into the new year. It begins on December 9 and will offer log-in bonuses and Gilded Voyages.
Published: Dec 2, 2020 08:30 pm