Play the Game, Not the Device

Player habits are changing. How and when we watch or play games is very much in an “on demand” world. Therefore one of the other advantages to cross play is, for example, if a family member is watching Netflix through the Xbox One in the living room, you can just jump onto your Windows 10 PC or laptop and carry on from where you left off. Then when they’re finished and want to join you in-game, you can simply invite them in and potentially even be in the same room as your newly formed co-operative crew. This level of luxury in choosing the game you want to play – instead of only playing on the device that’s available – is a really powerful ability for a lot of our audience with more than one device, and we want them to be able to take full advantage of it.

Sharing the Pool

An interesting part of cross play is how wide it throws open the doors for different communities to engage and play together, and therefore increases the wealth of stories you’re likely to tell. Some of our Deckhands (the closest members of our community) had until recently never been able to play the game together as they game on different devices, but now they’re able to share an experience without the barrier that previously blocked them. Also, they’re able to encounter different player types and make new friends – and of course matchmaking will always be quicker when there are more players to play with.

One of the things we’re very aware of is the need for the balancing to be right. After running some recent tests, we found that PC players were 4.5% more efficient at killing skeletons than Xbox players, and this feels close enough that it’s something we’ll continue to monitor. However, PvP between platforms, or more importantly device input, is the big focus point for us as a Design team, and already we’ve been working closely with the Game Experience team to change the way the guns work to be better balanced for cross play. We’ve put in a bunch of telemetry around this, and with the change to guns it’s made them feel tonally so much more fitting, as previously they felt more like laser weapons than ancient plundered-and-pillaged gunpowder-driven blunderbusses. *breathes*

It’s a Day-And-Date

Ultimately here at Rare we felt that for Sea of Thieves to not be considered a “port”, the game would have to be delivered in complete feature parity with Xbox (along with all the extra bells and whistles that PC players expect), and more importantly it would have to be released on the same day for gamers on both platforms. We’re here at Gamescom this week to announce that Sea of Thieves will ship in early 2018 on the same day for both Windows 10 and Xbox One. This is a powerful statement and one that’s truly important to us, and from now on every time we run a Technical Alpha it will be playable on both platforms – unless there’s something very specific that warrants testing only on one. It’s great being here on the Gamescom show floor and seeing people first-hand playing on PCs with a 21:9 monitor at 144Hz, or watching others playing at 4K/60 on a monster PC, and then others playing on an Xbox One – all having a great time together. It’s really magical once you’ve experienced it.