Sea of Thieves, Rare’s newest pirate adventure game, is out now. But beforeSea of Thieveswas about pirates, the developer considered a lot of other worlds and themes for its cooperative adventure game, including dinosaurs and vampires.
Speaking with IGN, Rare studio head Craig Duncan said the development ofSea of Thievesstarted with the concept ofa co-op adventure, but early in development the kind of world that adventure would take place in had yet to be decided. Duncan said Rare had a lot of ideas and explored which theme would work best:
“We had all these different themes, vampires, dinosaurs, you name it. Just imagine everything, because at this point you’re going broad, you’re brainstorming.”
Duncan didn’t go into too much more detail about how those other themes would have manifested themselves had Rare continued down the path toward their development, but he did acknowledge that the developer was glad it didn’t move forward with dinosaurs becauseArk: Survival Evolvedended up exploring that kind of world.
Obviously, the pirate theme was one of the options on the board, and once the developers matched up the dream of sailing as a pirate crew beside friends with their vision of creating an online co-op adventure betweena small group of players, things clicked.
It does seem like pirates was a perfect fit for Rare’s newest game. It’s always tempting to think about a version of the game in a different theme or world that is more appealing to each person, but after multiple previews and betas, it’s obvious that Rare believes in the formula.
Sea of Thievescan be picked up now, and as one of the higher profile games Xbox has in its exclusive catalog, anyone who buys an Xbox One X consolebetween now and March 24will get game for free as part of a special promotion.
Sea of Thievesis available now on Windows PC and Xbox One.
