It’s no secret that Sea of Thieves has had quite a few issues since its launch last week. Most notably, players have been slamming the servers , trying to get online and partake of Rare’s pirate sandbox. Unfortunately, that influx of players has also led to several other problems, including some bugs with the game’s messaging sys
Fortunately, Phil Spencer (Executive Vice President of Gaming at Microsoft) knows this all too well and is in the midst of turning things around. As Bloomberg reports, Spencer claims that the focus moving forward for Microsoft will be in software as it will begin to either create new studios or purchase them. He said: “We need to grow, and I look forward to doing that. Our ability to go create content has to be one of our strengths. We haven’t always invested at the same level. We’ve gone through ups and downs in the investment.” Furthermore, Spencer indicated on Major Nelson's podcast that there are going to be some “ positive changes ” at this year's E3, presumably meaning that they are truly starting to turn things around with regard to first-party cont
The pirated themed co-op was released this past March to mixed reviews. Critics praised the open-world gameplay but found there was too little content to keep players engaged . In response, the developer started churning out new content. Rare began sending out a stream of weekly patches as well as releasing several free expansion packs in order to keep gameplay interesting. The first three updates, The Hungering Deep , Cursed Sails , and Forsaken Shores unveiled a mixture of permanent and time-limited content. Gamers got fog, a volcano, and a megalodon battle added to a world already populated with treasure hunts and fights with angry skeletons. A fourth expansion pack, Shrouded Spoils is set to release later this mo
Knowing this now, it's hard not to feel as if the closure of Lionhead Studios and the cancellation of Platinum Games' Scalebound were done so with this plan in mind as Microsoft rearranged its assets, but there's no denying the immediate disappointment of it all for fans. The now cancelled Fable Legends and Scalebound could have acted as wonderful stopgaps during the wait for bigger titles. Instead, fans are left with a library that feels noticeably lighter in quality and quantity when compared to the current and impending lineup of PS4 titles. In some ways, even the Nintendo Switch has already delivered more promise in just over a year on the market than Microsoft has delivered with its Xbox One thus
On top of that, Sea of Thieves players are still seeing a delay in gold and reputation rewards and there has been some server instability noted on the forums. Not all of these issues will be fixed by this week’s patch, but Rare is hoping to get the more pressing problems ironed out. At the very least, this patch should put the game on the path towards stability and new content releases , even if some problems still pers
The other key issue addressed in Rare's developer update is cheating in Sea of Thieves . Despite only releasing a few weeks ago, the Strategy Game Building Guide reportedly already has a hacking problem, and Rare states that the studio considers dealing with this issue a top priority. The studio reiterated its banning policy, stating that any players caught cheating in the game would be banned straight a
It’s official, Sea of Thieves is getting a PVP mode. Earlier this year it was reported that the action-adventure game was considering adding a Battle Royale mode . Game developer Rare’s design director, Mike Chapman stated that the interest was there but that the developer wanted to create a twist to the game mode. Evidently this is exactly what Rare has done, creating a PVP mode with a few extra flourishes to tie back to the rest of the g
And what makes the wait for more first-party titles all the more troublesome is that Microsoft just released the Xbox One X - the most powerful video game console ever created - and they should be leveraging all that power by making Xbox One X exclusive games . On that note, one thing to keep in mind is that, because of those aforementioned cancellations and delays, Microsoft may be waiting to announce any new titles until they are sure those games will hit store shelves in a reasonable amount of time. Granted, they are doing exceptional work with Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Backwards Compatibility, but those aren't enough when gaming is about looking to the future as much as it is about preserving the past. Let's just hope that gamers aren't left waiting too long for new, truly worthwhile cont
Although players thought the developer was trying to keep the bigger reveals a secret, Rare want to make sure all Sea of Thieves players are aware of the new significant features being delivered in The Hungering Deep. That feature list now inclu
That's not to say that the publisher is without exclusive titles, with the likes of Crackdown 3 and State of Decay 2 being the two known exclusives arriving in 2018, but when stacked up against Sony's God of War and Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. the choice of which console to purchase likely won't lean in the Xbox One's favor. This is a subjective take to be sure, but there's truth in recognizing the popularity and raw sales numbers from each of the franchises included; at the end of the day Smash and God of War are just bigger na