How Xbox’s Divisive 2018 Open World Game Became a Huge Success Years Later

In 2018, Xbox launched a somewhat divisive game, but it has gone on to be one of its most beloved games to date. Xbox is known for some of the most iconic video game franchises out there in the form of Halo and Gears of War, but it has had some trouble kickstarting brand new ones. As a result, Xbox has gone out of its way to acquire a lot of different studios so it can leverage major IP like Call of Duty, Minecraft, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and more. However, one game did manage to sort of find its own legacy, even if it wasn’t right away.

In 2018, beloved studio Rare released Sea of Thieves. The game was announced in 2015 as a co-op pirate game. It was a pretty exciting concept, one that felt timely given the success of a game like Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag which gave players a hankering for more pirate games. Over the years, Rare had frequent playtests with players, allowing them to not only stress test the game, but also provide feedback to shape the experience.

Sea of Thieves Wasn’t Beloved at Launch

After four years of development, Sea of Thieves was finally released and garnered a lot of attention as it was the first game to be made available on day one through Xbox Game Pass. As a result, a lot of people gave it a shot, allowing it to score millions of players. However, not everyone was sold on the game. The game’s original Xbox One release holds a 69 on Metacritic, which isn’t great for a major first-party title. IGN and Game Informer gave the game a 7 out of 10 while others like GameSpot gave it a 6 out of 10, indicating reviews were pretty mixed. This reception wasn’t exclusive to critics either, though.

A lot of people felt Sea of Thieves was lacking content. You’d get on a boat, go grab some loot, and then head to an island to offload it. It was very simple, and for those playing it solo, it wasn’t very interesting or exciting. There was fun to be had in dueling other pirate ships, but it felt like Sea of Thieves only had the bare bones for something better. All in all, the game was quite shallow at launch and didn’t feel like it met its full potential.

However, Rare wasn’t going to throw in the towel because people weren’t loving it. It still had players and the success of Game Pass meant that even if people abandoned ship right then and there, the accessibility of the game meant they could easily reel them back in later.

How Rare Turned Sea of Thieves Around

A year after launch, Sea of Thieves received a big “Anniversary” update. This update added all kinds of new content, such as more quests, a greater emphasis on PvP with the Arena mode, and mechanics like cooking and fishing. There was generally just more to do, both in terms of filling down time and adventures to embark on. The new quests had more direction and structure to them, adding riddles and puzzles that were much more engaging than digging up a chest on an island while fending off skeletons. The added depth changed the tides for Sea of Thieves. People were starting to change their tune and recognize it as a truly great live-service game.

This wave of new content then led to more people playing Sea of Thieves and simultaneously creating content around it. Naturally, Sea of Thieves spread through word of mouth as clips spread across social media. Rare has continued to add more and more content to the game over the years, even doing a Sea of Thieves collaboration with Pirates of the Caribbean which added Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones into the actual game alongside new and original quests.

Frequent updates and a passionate community have kept Sea of Thieves afloat for years. It even got another resurgence in 2024. After years of being exclusive to Xbox and PC, Microsoft began exploring the idea of bringing some of its games to other platforms like PlayStation. This initiative began with older games that could benefit from a second wind of new players. Amongst the first wave of games to make the jump to PlayStation was Sea of Thieves.

The game had already built up a strong reception among players, so not much advertising was needed to convince PS5 players to jump in. It supported cross-play as well, which meant Xbox and PlayStation players could play Sea of Thieves together for the very first time. The rising tide lifted boats on all platforms, giving it another tremendous boost.

It’s hard to imagine Sea of Thieves would still be relevant today, let alone have been ported to other consoles, had Rare not stuck with it and made a strong effort to keep it fun. It’s anyone’s guess for how much longer the game will stay supported, but it’s a great success story for a game that initially was written off by a lot of people.