Rare has just held the first ever Sea of Thieves Community Direct, and in a wide ranging conversation have detailed changes to seasons, smuggling, their focus on improvements to game health and performance. The biggest surprise? A subscription led ‘Custom Servers’ feature is on the way.
The Direct was hosted by none other than the familiar voice of Sea of Thieves trailers everywhere (And Head of Video Production) John McMurtie, and he was joined by members of the development team at Rare. Namely, Head of Community and Comms Christina McFaurholme, Design Director Shelly Preston, Creative Director Mike Chapman and Production Director Drew Stevens.
This motley crew sat down and spoke about Rare’s long-running Sea of Thieves for just under an hour, but if you don’t want to watch all that, here’s the skinny:
Listening to Community Feedback
Mike Chapman: “I think after focusing on a lot of system based features, we definitely felt and we heard it in the Community that the sandbox was feeling a little bit stale. The sandbox wasn’t changing. So we really wanted to focus recent seasons on adding new mechanics, adding new ingredients that keep the sandbox fresh, and that’s really important for us because when you head out there on the waves, when you’re doing a voyage, when you’re just exploring, there needs to be more possibilities. There are special sea of thieves sessions that you have where things come together and they play differently each time.“
As such the team are bringing back the Developer Update, and are promising more Community Directs every six months.
Rebuilding The Insider Program
Per the press release, Rare are lifting the NDA on the long-running Insider program – “The partnership we have with our players is incredibly important to us, as is taking on board feedback that doesn’t just help us shape a feature but define it in the first instance. This is why we’re taking the bold step to lift the NDA from the Sea of Thieves Insider Programme. We want to inspire more conversation at scale about what we’re up to and how we can improve the experience. This means that while players will still have to register to be an Insider, they will be able to talk openly about the Insider build – as well as stream and capture it.“
The Insider Program will be relaunched in 2026 to make it “more engaging and rewarding for participants.“
Restructuring the Team, New Season Approach
Rare are also planning changes internally to allow the team to deliver better updates across all the necessary areas. Per Rare – “While dedicated teams already exist for Seasons, Pirate Emporium and Game Health, we’ve committed to expanding our Game Health team to ensure we continue improving the core playability and stability of the main game, alongside introducing new experiences. These teams are now set up and ready to go, with some improvements already in the bag and being enjoyed by our players.“
Seasonal content will be delivered across a three month period, with players able to ‘always have something new to look forward to throughout’. According to Rare, it’ll look a little something like this:
- Month 1: more sandbox features and worldbuilding setup
- Month 2: headline live Event, upscaled and expanded with lore elements
- Month 3: ‘call to action’ moment for players, revisiting and revitalising sandbox content
Season 17 – Smugglers Tide
Season 17 is all about The Smugglers League, a new band of pirates arriving in Sea of Thieves. Per Rare, “The first month of the Season will introduce this ragtag bunch and key features like Smugglers’ Hideouts, new loot types and Smugglers’ Runs. Month 2 will bring a headline live Event in the form of a heist, while Month 3 refreshes the Skeleton Fort experience – a feature that’s remained unchanged for some time.“
Season 18 will look to focus on the biome known as The Devil’s Roar…so keep an eye out for that.
Custom Servers
Lastly, and arguably the biggest surprise was the announcement of Custom Servers for Sea of Thieves. Rare said that custom servers will “offer a range of different features, including a private customisable sandbox. With switches, toggles and commands to curate the server experience, subscribers will be able to do things such as spawn enemies and loot on command, turn off AI enemies and ensure that the environment is fit for whatever shenanigans they want to set up.“
Players will also be able to utilise a ‘cinematic camera’, a toolset similar to what Rare uses to make Gameplay Trailers.
There’s tons more to read on the blog, or you can watch the video, so head here to check it out.
