One of Xbox Game Studios biggest games of the generation, Sea of Thieves, is constantly being updated. Today Rare has announced when two long awaited features will go into public testing via their Insider program.
Cross-play
Ever since the launch of the game fans have been asking for an opt-out for cross-platform-play. Today, Windows 10 and Xbox One users can play together in both the competitive mode Arena and the more open world focused mode Adventure. Earlier this year Rare has tried to balance the game in favor of console players by removing the double-gun possibility. Another measure they are taking is the possibility to opt-out of cross-platform-play. Today Joe Neate, executive producer at Sea of Thieves, has announced that opt-out will go into the insider program soon.
Pets and microtransactions
Another long awaited feature will go into testing – again – in the near future.
Yes, pets are coming.
Even before launch in 2018 Rare has talked about adding microtransactions to the game. For the first year the game did not have any monetization options. With the inclusion of pets into the game the inactive microtransactions-store on the home menu of the game will also be active. Micro-transactions for the game will offer no power advantages and the game won’t have any lootboxes.
During testing ahead of the Anniversary Update in April, Rare has been testing pets with insider. At a certain point Rare has removed pets from the insider builds, as they “didn’t quite reach the bar” the acclaimed studio had set for quality.
According to Joe Neate pets are much closer to where they want them to be. Insiders will be able to test the pets soon.
Besides pets, players will also be able to purchase emotes and special ship cosmetics from the new in-game store. Pricing has not been announced yet.
Lastly, Rare has also been working on improving the hit detection for person versus person combat. This should improve the user experience when engaging in personal combat. This improvement will also head to insiders fairly soon.
