'Sea of Thieves' and 'State of Decay 2' Exceeded Expectations, Says Microsoft

The holiday gaming season is almost upon us, where Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo vie for holiday dollars through hardware and software sales.

And the big "M" knows that it's got an uphill battle ahead with Forza Horizon 4 being its biggest holiday hit. But, speaking with GamesIndustry International, it expressed confidence in two of its biggest exclusives for 2018 -- Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2.

Said Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg, "Sea of Thieves is a big priority for us. Both Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 were, for us, breakout hits of the spring. They exceeded what we expected them to do. Sea of Thieves has over five million players, State of Decay 2 has more than three million players. They both sold more than we expected and drove a lot of great engagement with Game Pass."

He continued, "For Sea of Thieves, [developer] Rare has dedicated teams that are building add-on content that's completely free. The entire community gets them. They've added new ships, gameplay, quests and things that is going to be great for engaged fans who want to keep playing, but every couple of months the game gets bigger, so it also enables us to go back to people who have never played and introduce them to it. That's modern marketing. People don't need to get a new game to get new content and innovation."

With that, Greenberg explained that the company's Game Pass service will be getting a huge push for the holidays as the "best holiday gift" that gamers can get for one another for an affordable price.

Then Greenberg turned his attention to Forza Horizon 4. "There are fans of the Forza franchise that we know are going to buy every release. The question is, are the more mainstream gamers who maybe buy three games a year, are we going to make that list of three games? And you're right, Forza Horizon 3 greatly exceeded our expectations when it launched and every single month since. It's been incredible.

"Horizon 3 was, in many ways, a great open-world game. The game and setting was very unique and, with the quality of the game, it stood out. The challenge for [developer] Playground was how do you build on that? Having the setting in beautiful Britain, which as we know is where Playground is based, being able to add in the elements of the four seasons and how that can change gameplay... that is going to take the franchise to a whole other level.

"So our expectation is that Forza Horizon 4 is going to be the biggest and best-selling Forza game that we've ever launched. Currently our pre-order tracking is well ahead of where we want, and tracking ahead of where we were with Forza Horizon 3. So the early indicators are really good. And that's before you get into the fact that this title will be in Game Pass, which will allow it to reach another set of gamers who may never have played or bought the game."

So now it's just a matter of seeing what these games do for Microsoft over the next few months -- and if they push more Xbox One units into homes. We'll find out soon enough.

Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 are available now. Forza Horizon 4 arrives on October 2.