‘Sea of Thieves’ Getting Competitive With New Arena Mode, Coming Next Year

Rare has done a great job supporting its online-powered Sea of Thieves game for Xbox One and PC; but for all the plundering you get to do, there isn't much in the way of competitive action. However, that's about to change.

During yesterday's X018 presentation, the developer announced that it was planning a free update in 2019 that will bring a new competitive PvP mode to the game, in the form of The Arena. You can see hints of what it has to offer in the debut trailer above.

In the mode, you'll be able to go up against other crews in full-blown match-ups, while also taking on the Sea Dogs faction and paying a visit to a new tavern that will be introduced within the game. On top of that, a number of new Achievements will be available to unlock, in case you need another excuse to become a landlubber yet again.

Rare executive producer Joe Neate talked about the mode, explaining how the team wanted to build upon its world of Sea of Thieves with something new, creating "competition on demand" as a result.

He says that the treasure hunting-based mode will have "all the best bits of Sea of Thieves condensed down into a shorter session," before adding that "it's real crazy" and "it's a lot of fun."

As for when players will be able to access it, we don't really know yet. We do know that, according to studio head Craig Duncan, Pioneers will have access to the expansion first, with Rare then stepping in to perform tweaks and further updates. From there, we could possibly see a beta for the mode before it goes all out with a launch. More than likely, we could see it before summer, depending on how early sessions with the mode go.

This could easily be the most exciting thing to come to Sea of Thieves since its introduction earlier this year, as fans have been waiting to tackle renegade factions (and not just armies of the undead) since the game launched. It looks like they'll finally get their wish, though it's really just a question of when at this point.

In the meantime, you can enjoy Sea of Thieves now on Xbox One and Windows PC. If you haven't experienced it yet, it's also a part of the Xbox Game Pass!